The season of love is upon us! Have you started thinking about ways that you’ll be showing love to your loved ones in your life? What about ways that you can show love to those who are not currently in your life? You could donate to a cause that’s close to your heart or even express your love by fostering a pet. Fostering a pet could actually serve you, your family, and the fostered pet.
Fostering a Pet
When you foster a pet, you provide temporary care and shelter for an animal while they are waiting to be adopted. This is often a great option for someone who wants to help animals and doesn’t have the capacity to have an animal of their own. By fostering a pet, you will help relieve overcrowding in shelters and provide so many benefits to the animal you’re fostering. We’ll discuss some of these benefits later on.
Pets Experience Love Differently
If you decide to foster a pet, it’s important to keep in mind that we, humans, might envision “showing love” as buying a gift or sharing vigorous hugs with our beloved. However, this would not be our pet’s idea of love. Of course, each of our pets has their individual preferences based on their personality just like we do, but in general, an animal’s Idea of showing love might include:
- Companionship
- Shared playtime
- A gentle snuggle, on their terms
- Providing a safe place to rest without the threat of danger
- Healthy food provided on a reliable schedule
- Shelter from severe weather
- Trust
Benefits for the Pet Being Fostered
Many pets that are waiting for adoption have been abandoned or neglected, or are homeless. Therefore, the animal finds itself without the surety of protection and regular meals. Their life is filled with uncertainty, fear, hunger, and perhaps pain. Having a foster home helps provide security by providing a supportive sanctuary for them to feel safe.
Food and Medical Care
Once rescued, they will be provided with food on a regular schedule and even treats to reward good behavior. Oftentimes, pets have gone months or years without medical care, or have never had it. In a foster home, meals and medical care can be given with more attention to individual needs and with the care and patience required by some animals. Having regular medical care will help them have a better quality of life and could even reduce their physical pain.
A Safe Environment
By fostering a pet you will give the animal so much more than it might receive in a shelter environment. Rather than a small cage in a kennel, a foster home can provide a soft, warm home with individual attention. The overall environment of a foster home lowers the stress of most animals that come from the shelter. The surroundings are quieter with less fear energy than the shelter. This allows stressed animals to get the rest they need without having to be on guard all the time.
Routine
The foster home will provide a more relaxed and predictable routine which can be important to a pet that has come from so much uncertainty. Fostering allows a scared or anxious animal to form a bond of trust with one familiar caretaker rather than the anonymous staff that they encounter in a shelter.
A Place to Be Themselves
Once rested and renewed in their foster home, a pet’s true personality begins to emerge. Their caregiver can learn about their likes and dislikes, play style, and energy level creating an environment for them to grow and thrive.
They can learn about how to behave in a home and get socialized with other family members and pets. Individual personality traits can be recognized that will help pair them with their perfect situation. For example, if a cat is not well suited to life in a family home, it can be placed in a farm-type home where it can receive care and shelter and maintain the freedom it needs. The foster caretaker is often the one that writes a pet’s adoption profile to attract just the right match.
Tailored Training
These pets can now receive care and training individually tailored to their needs, such as housetraining or leash skills, which can improve their adoptability. By fostering, you can teach an animal all of the skills they need to become a valued family pet or be matched to a job that fits its personality.
Taking Love A Step Further
If you’re looking to see what your foster pet really loves, an animal communicator is a great way to do that! An animal communicator can help identify where the pet may be experiencing pain, what kind of food they enjoy, and what their fear triggers are. To learn more about how an animal communicator can help, schedule a free introductory call.
If you choose to foster a pet, I thank you in advance as the care and love that a foster provides can help ensure the pet lives a long, healthy life filled with fun and love!