Fostering rescue animals is one of my biggest passions in life.
I have volunteered at city run animal shelters in Los Angeles, and small volunteer run rescues in San Diego. I am currently volunteering as the Director of Events at The Animal Pad dog rescue and I love it. I help coordinate adoption and fundraising events throughout the San Diego community to help our rescue dogs find forever homes. In fact, that is how I first heard of TrustedHouseSitters. They PAWtnered with The Animal Pad (TAP) at several different events and helped TAP save dogs in need. Once I learned more about THS I knew I had to join this awesome pet loving community.
Fostering rescue animals is such a rewarding experience! Once you have fostered your first pet and helped them find their forever home, you get addicted! Addicted to the feeling knowing you saved a pets life. Here are some photos of my past fosters.
This cutie was my first foster fail. Meaning I ended up adopting him myself. Greatest decision I have ever made in my entire life. I named him Trooper, because after everything he went through (extreme abuse and leg amputation) he is still a fearless, happy, loving pup. He’s such a Trooper.
This fur ball is Pierre and he was my latest foster pup. You can read more about him here. He just left my house this week and is now in his hopefully forever home
This sweet girl above is Lady Lily. TAP rescued her from a kill shelter in Las Vegas. Lily is about 10 years old and almost fully blind so her odds of getting adopted from the overcrowded shelter in Las Vegas were not very high. Now Lily is living her best life with her new forever family in San Diego!
This little guy above is alive today because TrustedHouseSitters very own @Angela_L came along a rescue trip with The Animal Pad to Mexico and saved Momma Holly from the streets when she was very pregnant. She gave birth to 13 puppies, including this one, just days after crossing the border to San Diego where she settled into her foster home. You can read the full story here: A Day In Mexico With The Animal Pad Team
What kind of pets have you fostered? What rescue or shelter have you fostered from? I would love to see your photos! And if you live in the San Diego area and would like to foster, you can learn more here.
I have fostered about 45 cats and one dog so far. Like @Julie_A , fostering and volunteering with animals is a passion and addictive. The groups I help are Dallas Animal Services, SPCA, AVAP and EDKC
While on a sit in Switzerland, on a boat in the middle of one of the many lakes, surrounded by stunning Alpine scenery, I got a heartbreaking text from Dallas. A woman who lived in appalling conditions (where I feed and TNR ferals cats) was being evicted and having to move to a homeless shelter. She had six indoor cats that needed rehoming. The contrast between her situation and my very privileged Swiss situation broke my heart and I had to help.
After multiple emails and social media posts, I found a rescue and temporary foster for the six cats until I returned to the US. None of the cats had ever seen a vet. They were ridden with fleas, mange, worms and unsocialized. Six weeks later, all cats are fixed, healthy and loving.
I have mostly fostered kittens, and these are so much fun with their two modes - ON like whirling dervishes, and OFF. Some images from my foster IG page
Lorna is the only dog that I have fostered…so far! She was ready to be euthanized at the local shelter because they were overcrowded and had no space. I got her on her EU day, and could not have had an easier first dog. I only had her about 2 weeks before she was adopted by a fabulous young couple with a few other pets. I was so happy for her
I fostered this gal a few years ago. She was found abandoned at a house, and came to me through a horse rescue I volunteered with.
Her name was Millie, she was great fun. I didn’t have any other pigs at the time but she lived quite happily in the barn with the Guinea fowl for a few months until she found a home!
Wow @Lassie what an incredible journey you have had rescuing our furry friends in need. I love that you started an instagram for all the kitties you have fostered. They are all so cute! And Lorna is beautiful, thank you for saving her on her euth date and helping her find her forever family. Sadly Texas has one of the highest euthanasia rates in the country, but hopefully we can change that one day!
@Lindsay Millie is so stinking cute! It has been a dream of mine to one day have a pet pig haha. They are such intelligent loving animals.
Sadly there has been a huge spike in pigs entering US rescues and shelters because of the “teacup” hoax. Basically breeders were claiming to sell “mini pigs”, when really they were just young or malnourished pigs.
What was your favorite part about fostering Millie? That is so cool you volunteer for a horse rescue, do you foster horses for them too?
@Julie_A The best part is the memory of three of us trying to get a 200+lb half feral pig in the back of a Ford Escape
But, really, she was great. Loud, demanding, hilarious. She came at the right time as I had just sent my two pigs for processing (yes, we raised them for meat) and I missed them. The “mini pig” myth has been terrible for pigs. Pigs are wonderful, intelligent, stubborn animals, I adore them, but for me they are always outside / barn animals. Most of the people who think the cute little piglet is going to be like having a dog in the house are in for a surprise and the pigs are the ones who suffer, ending up in rescue or abandoned.
Pic of my boys who were raised for meat in the most natural, humane way possible.
I am not at the horse rescue anymore since I moved away from the area, but spent three years with them, not fostering horses, they don’t foster any offsite, but helping wherever needed, lots of mucking stalls, etc. Saw some really sad things there, horses in terrible states of neglect and abuse, it’s not for the faint of heart, but seeing them return to health and start to trust humans again is priceless.
Thanks. Texas has a horrendous oversupply of animal, mainly because the spay-neuter laws are ignored.
I have sent a few fosters on SPCA flights to other cities, and volunteered for the medicals for 80 cats the last flight. They have transported about 1100 cats this year. Texas is overrun with cats, but other cities charge $375 adoption fee!
Our foster dog is recovering from his spay surgery and will be going to a wonderful family for a trial adoption. We foster and I volunteer at the shelter when we are home. Atlanta has a horrible problem with pet over-population. Many people breed for greed and dump animals when they are no longer convenient. Very sad. Fostering is very rewarding and very much needed.
Thanks for sharing @Southernsitter your foster pup is adorable. I agree, fostering is so rewarding, thank you for making a PAWsitive difference in the world
@Julie_A this topic nearly passed me by (as a contributor) … I was thinking Dogs and Cats and it was @geoff.hom posting about volunteering with horses that gave me the “Ah Ha” moment …
I fostered two rescued Welsh Mountain Ponies in Spain and brought the one surviving pony to the UK where she now lives and I still “foster” her … meet Hope a feisty little madam, pretty, affectionate and her almost total blindness doesn’t prevent her from living her best life along with her Best Shetland Pony Friend and eyes and thank you to member Liz who pops along to see her when she has the time …
Julie, I most remember helping with the horse rescue’s software. =) But I was also a pair of hands to help with whatever manual labor they needed: mucking, feeding, grooming, observing, etc.
I’ve never owned a horse, and I’ve barely ridden one. We didn’t ride horses at the rescue, which made some potential volunteers sad, I think.
Incidentally, you’re in SD, right? If you meet any Homs, there’s a good chance we’re related. My cousin Jennifer (Hom) Banales has horses. Her dad is my Uncle Tom and is well-known in some circles.
@geoff.hom your Uncle Tom is incredible, I just read the article you sent. Thank you so much for sharing that. I haven’t personally met your uncle, but the positive difference he has made in San Diego is amazing. It would be an honor to meet him one day. And it makes sense you two are related, you both have such giving hearts. Thank you for volunteering with that horse rescue, the world would be a better place if everyone took a little time to help those in need.
Until 2020, we have always been tenants and moving around a bit, so a pet was never really a possibility. One week after we moved into our own (purchased!) home, we were registered with the local rescue centre and a few weeks later, we started fostering our first cat. A very traumatised cat that was saved from a kill shelter, that didn’t want to come out from under the bed for weeks on end. But little-by-little, actually, the littlest you can possibly imagine, this cat started coming out of his shell. It took 9 months for him to become ‘normal’ again and seek out attention! He ended up loving cuddles and brushing so much, he would accept it the whole day long! After 13 months, we found him his forever home. That first week was so hard. I kept seeing his shadow in every corner. But alas, time heals and he is now very happy in his new home for 12 months already.
While we were non-nomads for that period, I volunteered at our local shelter, called ‘Friends of the Pound’ in Australia. I was an admin lady, but of course got to interact with all kinds of pets. The best day was, when I walked into the office, and happened upon THIS! A basketful of kittens. No kidding. You can’t be sad, angry, upset or any other negative emotion when you are greeted by this scene
This is our foster cat from Egypt, being snuggled by my neighbor’s daughter. We call her “Chicken Dinner,” as in “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” because she was lucky enough to be brought home by a professional rescuer instead of being euthanized. She is the survivor of some sort of bad accident (missing half of a tail, and a limp and evidence of damage). Nevertheless, she is fearless around people, friendly, sweet, and just wonderful. She does protect her food around my other cat, and she can get slightly scared if someone sneaks up on her (she might have blindness in one eye). We are fostering her until a lady who has another cat is ready for her. The cat is old and will probably die naturally within the year, and the lady doesn’t want to stress her with a new cat just yet.
