If You Love Animals, Why Not Foster a Dog?

If you love animals, why not donate your time by fostering a dog? PAWS and other rescues look towards foster parents as a means to rescue as many needy dogs as possible. Foster parents step in once the dog has been rescued by welcoming these abandoned dogs into their home. The foster family does not merely serve as a kennel for the dog; great foster families treat these dogs as a part of their own family, loving them, training them and nurturing them back to health, if necessary.

The process is simple. A family interested in fostering a dog would need to contact PAWS and fill out a foster application. The reason for the application is to determine if the family is prepared to handle an abandoned dog. When the dog is rescued, he/she is given an examination by a veterinarian to determine his/her overall health. Then, foster parents on file are contacted to see if they have room at that time to take in this new dog. Once a foster family has been located, the dog is brought over to see how well he gets along with the new family and any other pets the family may already have. If things go well, the foster family takes in the new dog until he is ready to be permanently adopted by another family.

PAWS pays for any medical bills the dog may have (including treatments for any disease or injury), including spays/neuters, examinations and treatments. Since the foster family is the best source of information as to the dog’s temperament and character, they usually play a vital role in the adoption process.

While there is no payment for fostering a dog, the joy of nurturing a formerly unwanted dog into a lovable and happy dog is priceless. Not only do foster families house the dogs, they provide a warm home for the dogs to feel safe in, a loving family for the dogs to feel secure with and a sense of happiness for the dogs to be grateful for.