WHAT IS FOSTERING?
Fostering is the process of taking a shelter animal into your home temporarily until they're ready for adoption. Foster homes save lives by freeing up space in the shelter, socializing animals, caring for sick or orphaned animals, and by helping to prevent disease spreading in the shelter environment.
WHY FOSTER?
1. Fostering saves lives.
2. Whether you volunteer to raise orphaned kittens, or to give an adult dog a break from the kennel - you are making a difference in the life of an animal in need.
3. Young puppies and kittens need more care and safety than can be provided in a shelter environment.
4. Science has proven that dogs thrive with a break from the kennel, and actually tend to get adopted more quickly after a foster vacation.
We provide the supplies and support, you provide the love.
NEONATAL, ORPHANED & WEANED KITTENS
Every year, the SPCA of Northeastern North Carolina takes in more than 1,000 kittens in need of foster or adoptive homes. Many of these kittens are orphaned kittens, under 8 weeks of age, and need a temporary foster person to raise them until they're ready for adoption.
Unweaned kittens require foster parents to bottle feed every few hours in the early weeks until they transition to solid foods. Bottle babies require about 8 weeks of foster care. Many of the kittens we intake are already weaned and eating solid food, and they require only a 2-4 week stay in a foster home until they're old enough for vaccines and adoption.
KENNEL BREAKS
You can make a positive impact on the life on a homeless dog or cat by temporarily opening your home (or a room in your home) to them. Fostering provides our long-term residents a very welcomed break from life in a shelter environment, and it provides a better prospective for potential adopters as to how the animal is in the home.
Kennel breaks can last anywhere from an afternoon out at the park, to a weekend sleepover, to even as long as a few weeks! However long your preferred foster-staycation last, we have an animal for you.
MEDICAL & BEHAVIOR ANIMALS
We regularly need temporary foster homes where animals can recover from injury, illness, abuse or neglect in the comfort of a home environment. Our staff will work with you closely to ensure you're confident with the at-home care that your foster animal requires. We provide all of the supplies, medicine and training that you'll need for the animal, we just ask you to provide the love.
Recovery time varies, depending on the needs of the individual animal.
Nursing Mothers with Puppies/Kittens
Among the 2,000+ animals the SPCA of Northeastern North Carolina takes in each year are occasionally nursing mothers and their young. These families require a quiet foster home where the mother can raise her babies in peace and safety, outside the shelter environment.
We are often in need of foster homes for nursing cats and their kittens, and less frequently we also need foster homes for nursing dogs and their puppies until they're ready for adoption.
FIELD TRIPS & SLEEPOVERS
Can't commit to a long-term foster? No problem!
We offer short-term foster opportunities which have time and time again proven to both reduce stress in our animals, and to help them find loving forever homes more quickly. We ask that fosters share information about the animal's behavior's outside of the shelter to help us better place them in the perfect forever home.
HOSPICE FOSTER | "FOSPICE"
The "Fospice" program at the SPCA of Northeastern North Carolina helps to provide palliative care to homeless animals who are near the end of the lives, due to age, illness or ailment. Our hospice foster volunteers remain in close contact with our staff to determine the best care for that individual animal, and to determine quality of life in the home when making end of life decisions.
We provide all of the medical supplies needed for that animal, and the Fospice Home provide love and care in their final days.