Pet foster parents provide short and long-term care for animals in their home. By offering your time, love and attention, you prepare your foster animal for adoption into a permanent, loving home.
There are many reasons why animals need to be fostered before they are placed in permanent homes. Some of these reasons include:
the animal is stressed or fearful of being in a shelter environment
the animal is too young or underweight to be placed up for adoption
the animal needs time to heal from an injury or illness
the animal has been surrendered and rescue organization may not have room to house
Each organization listed in our directory is ALWAYS in search of foster parents. The more foster parents available, the more animals can be saved. If you don't know which organization you'd like to foster for, feel free to fill out San Jose Animal Advocates' foster parent application. We work with many of the area rescue groups and will contact them for you with your completed application.
If you know which organization you'd like to foster for, please contact them directly. Each organization will provide you with all of the guidance and information that you need, but in general a foster parent should be prepared for:
providing daily care and feeding (often food is provided)
socializing your animal and give them plenty of TLC
providing transportation to and from shelter/ vet for medical appointments
attending adoption events (depending upon the organization)
When the time comes, it may be difficult to say good bye to your fostered animal. That said know that you are making a huge impact on this animal's life and preparing him/her for their forever home. By fostering this animal, you have allowed the organization to save more animals, and you literally have saved your foster animal's life by giving him/her time to get ready for adoption, and a new life!
You will find that fostering a shelter/rescue animal will be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling thing an animal lover can do! Still need to be convinced about how awesome it is to foster an animal? Read our blog post, "My Foster Kitten Crush".
If you still have some questions and want to chat about whether fostering is right for you? Feel free to contact us. If you are ready, go ahead and either fill out our foster parent application (and we'll do the legwork for you and hook you up with an organization) or contact one of the organizations in our Directory!
Read more about becoming a foster parent from the Humane Society of the United States. Have you fostered a pet? We'd love to hear your stories. Contact us with your story (and a picture of your fostered pet)!