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What, Why, How...?
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines the word "FOSTER" as this: "affording, receiving, or sharing nurture or parental care though not related by blood or legal ties." It's a definition that highlights some of the most rewarding aspects of taking a needy kitten or cat temporarily into your home. Because not only do fosters nurture and care for their charges; they really "share" the experience with the cats, "receiving" lots of nurture and care right back!
 Since Kitten Rescue does not have a shelter facility, we rely on volunteer foster parents to care for our rescued cats. Foster parents have the unique opportunity to personally help our rescued kittens heal both emotionally and physically from whatever trauma they have been through.
Many fosters are cat lovers who are stepping forward to "do the right thing" by homeless cats in their neighborhood. Sometimes these animals come right to our doors...somehow "knowing" where there's a heart that will reach out to them. They are the cats whose owners moved away and simply abandoned them, not understanding why their home has disappeared, but now must scavenge for food and shelter to survive. They are the kittens born to somebody's unspayed pet and left in gutters, dumpsters, vacant lots...in the hopes that they will die quickly as a "disposable" inconvenience. They are the kittens delivered by stray cats who are abandoned because their mother is too ill or inexperienced to raise them. They are the cats lost, forgotten, and unanswered for by protective forces.
 When one of these animals enters your life, however, it is sometimes hard to change your routine, incur extra food and medical costs, and possibly upset your own pets. Many people faced with homeless animals tell themselves, "It's not my problem", "It's not my fault", "It's so sad, but there's nothing I can do". Well, fortunately, there is something you can do without making a lifetime commitment.
So why in the world would any sane human being volunteer to be a foster parent for an an animal they don't even own? Why would someone take on the responsibility for an animal someone else was supposed to take care of but didn't? Why would anyone want to give up their spare bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, etc. and take on responsibility for a pet they will eventually place in someone elses home?
People who choose to foster do so because they know that if they don't step up to the plate, the fate of these animals is either sub-par living conditions or death. They feel good knowing they are making the difference, every minute and every day, in the life of an innocent soul; that a few months of inconvenience turns quickly into a rewarding, educational, challenging, and fun experience they will never forget. While it's true that fosters do get very attached to their animals, they also find a special joy in sending a pet to a wonderful new family.
 Many families foster as a way to teach their children about compassion and responsibilty in a creative and collaborative way. We have had parent-child partnerships take on nursing bottle babies or moms with litters, as a tag-team effort with joyous results. Parents who homeschool have also found that fostering is a great teaching endeavor for their family.
If you are trying to place a homeless cat and are considering whether to foster it, we encourage you to take the leap. Contact your local shelters and rescue groups and investigate their fostering programs. If you would like to foster for Kitten Rescue, fill our our Foster Application and we will contact you. We provide training and pay all medical costs! There are few acts more heart-warming than helping to save the life of a loving innocent creature in need.
Fostering Basics
April here in Los Angeles may finally bring the rains to an end, but springtime is just the start of another kind of deluge - the annual flood of unwanted and abandoned kittens and puppies. All over the city, rescuers are struggling to cope with an enormous influx of young animals who have been orphaned, either by nature when the mothers are killed in accidents or disappear, or by uncaring "owners" whose idea of birth control is to put infants in a box and turn them in to the local pound or leave them on a curb. This kitten and puppy monsoon is, of course, in addition to the huge numbers of adult animals always in need of new homes. The unsung heroes in the battle to save these endangered pets are the volunteer foster parents who work with local rescue organizations.
 Becoming a foster parent can be rigorous, but it is always rewarding! Foster parents agree to take animals into their homes on behalf of the organizations they work with, and care for them as if they were their own pets until they can be adopted to new homes. At the least, this involves feeding, cleaning, grooming, and playing with the animals. Sometimes, however, that's just the tip of the iceberg for fosters. Because many rescued animals are sick, stressed, or frightened, they may require special care. A frightened or abused animal may require weeks of extra attention and behavioral modification to become ready for adoption.
Unweaned orphaned kittens and puppies, affectionately known by rescuers as "bottle babies", require the most work of all! As with human infants, around the clock bottle feeding of special puppy or kitten formula is required, as frequently as every 2-3 hours for newborns. Most challenging of all, orphaned kittens and puppies are more likely to get sick because they aren't getting the antibodies normally passed on in mom's milk. Any foster will tell you that raising bottle babies is as much hard work as a human baby -- multiplied by 4, 5 or 8! And of course once they get to be 8-10 weeks old, the foster has to bid a tearful goodbye as their beloved babies are adopted to new homes!
Fostering is challenging, fun and rewarding. If you love animals, and have the space and time to open your heart to a foster animal, you will find it immeasurably rewarding. Fill out our Foster Application if you'd like to become a foster parent with Kitten Rescue. We provide training and pay for all medical costs! We have all ages, breeds and personalities of cats and kittens which need your help.
A Year of Miscellaneous Cats
It started with a flyer posted on the bulletin board at my gym, and resulted just a few days later in a 5-week old kitten bopping around playfully in my spare bedroom. I took on that first fostering experience after many months of wishing I could contribute to local animal welfare in a personal, see-the-results kind of way...and, for course, after a prolonged urge to have a kitten around again.
Once that first kitten was of age and adopted, I was hooked. Kittens started to come through my spare bathroom at a regular rate, often two or three at a time. My own two cats, although kept separated from these little invaders for a strictly enforced "quarantine" period, were upset when I started, then decided to pretend the whole thing wasn't happening. My boyfriend and I, however, were in a constant state of giggles and smiles-- while helping these kittens warm up to people, grow big and strong and play their hearts out, we became, in a sense, kittens too.
 My first challenge-- and ultimate victory-- was a tiny 4-week-old kitten we named Louis, after the main character in "Interview with the Vampire", because he was not fully weaned yet and liked to suck on our necks. Louis had been found on the street abandoned so young, so weak, that he was stricken quickly by a potentially deadly virus. An emergency trip to Kitten Rescue's vet saved his life, and he continued to grow, as did our adoration for him. When he was finally old enough to be available for adoption, there was no way I could give him up. He is now 3 1/2 years old, and the biggest, sweetest baby I have ever known. He is that much more special to me because I had a hand in "shaping" his personality by bonding with him so young, and because I know that if I hadn't taken him in as a foster, he would have been euthanized at the shelter.
A parade of cats followed, including several wonderful, grateful adult kitties. Otto, a tiny Siamese-mix kitten, was born feral but quickly realized the benefits of having humans around. Up until this point, Louis was the only one of my (now) three cats who would associate with the kittens after the separation period was over and they had free run of the apartment. It would take him about two minutes to fall in love with his new buddy. Emma, my prissy Himalayan mix (who herself had been rescued after being abandoned on the street), always ignored the kittens. But she looked at Otto and realized he resembled her, deeming him worthy of her attention. She became a surrogate mother to him and lent an important "helping paw" in his development.
During that first year of fostering, I was personally able to take in about 25 cats and kittens. Every single one of them is now living with doting new parents. In that time, I learned how to bottle-feed unweaned kittens, inject fluids, administer vaccinations, and evaluate cats for their medical and psychological needs. I watch "Animal Planet" and feel like one of the ranks of animal welfare workers all over the world. I talk to my vet and feel like I understand the mystery of animal medicine much better. And with my own cats, Louis, Emma, and Satchel Paige, I can better provide an environment where they are healthy and happy...hopefully for many, many years.
Since that first year, I have reduced my fostering to emergency-only situations, but the memory of all those needy kitties is always with me, buoying me when I feel like I haven't "accomplished anything" in my life yet. You don't have to foster as many cats as I did in order to gain something from the experience; even taking in one cat, just once, will touch you deeply for a long, long time. In a world that sometimes seems too infuriating, sad, and dangerous, it's nice to have as many things as possible living inside your heart. |
Contact our Foster Coordinator by e-mail
Download a Foster Application
Click Here to fill out an Online Foster Application
Fosters must live in Los Angeles, The San Fernando Valley or Orange County.
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Donations to Kitten Rescue are tax-deductible
and receipts are available upon request.
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