The Lewis and Clark Humane Society is always looking for people willing to foster animals.
Fostering involves temporarily caring for one of the many animals at the shelter while they search for their forever home. While fostering an animal may seem like a big ask, it can be as simple as spending the day with a foster, or for a longer term if you’re looking to help further.
(Watch to learn more about fostering an animal)
Short-term options include taking an animal for a day trip or hosting them for a night or two so they can get out in the community and relax outside of the shelter. For those open to the commitment, pets can be fostered for up to months at a time.
The application process is simple; you can go online to their website and fill out the online application. You’ll be added to an email list, and there’s the potential to go home with a foster animal the same day. Once you’ve bonded with an animal, the shelter will keep you in the loop.
“They keep you in touch with the same animal as much as they can, which is kind of nice for everyone,” said Whitley Begger, who has fostered many times in the past. “You kind of get to know the animal, and then you’re able to provide the shelter with details about the animal, which helps someone adopt the animal.”
Fostering is a great way to prepare these pets to end up with forever families and rehabilitate them should they need it.
“I just like foster pets,” said Whitley’s daughter, Alice. “You get to play with them, and sometimes when they come, they’re really fluffy, and they all come in different sizes and different animals sometimes. Then if there's something wrong with them, we can help them with it so they're good to have a family.
The Humane Society pays for all things necessary to foster a pet. All they ask is for the animal to be loved outside of the shelter.
“We take care of everything, the food, the supplies, the medical care, all those sorts of things are things that we provide for at the shelter,” said Katie Axline-Pittman, Animal Services manager for the Humane Society. “You’re literally just loving them and providing them a safe place until we can find their forever home.”
Axline-Pittman started, took over the cat adoption position, and started revamping the program in 2014. She reorganized the program in 2016, which she said is similar to how it looks today.
“We see kittens and puppies come in that are newborn up until senior age, it just kind of depends, there’s such a wide range,” said Axline-Pittman. “We’ve seen cats, dogs, kittens, puppies, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, all sorts of different things, so it really depends on what walks through the door and what needs extra help.”
This year alone, the Humane Society placed 750 animals into foster care, almost all of which have since been adopted.
There are plenty of animals at the Lewis and Clark Humane Society that are looking for their forever homes or foster homes. You can find out more information on their website.
