Foster homes desperately needed!
Without foster parents the Cat Rescue Network would not exist! Foster parents nurture, treat and coax
life back into traumatized cats. They provide animals who have lost all hope with the will to live.
A fosterer is someone who provides a temporary home and care for a creature in need.
When there is a shelter involved there are a number of reasons a cat or kitten may need fostering:
- Pregnant queens, or mother and kittens – need somewhere to have and raise their kittens
- Orphaned kittens – need extra care to make up for the lack of mum
- Sick or injured, special needs or elderly cats – who may need extra care
In our case, we don’t have a shelter, so every cat we rescue needs to go to a foster home or we can’t take it in!
Why foster?
Providing a foster home can literally be the difference between life and death for the cat, but you may find that
fostering would be the more convenient option for you as well.
- Fostering is not a long term commitment, unlike adopting, it can be just for the holidays or for one season at a time
- Fostering could allow you to have the special company of a pet when you are at home, if you travel and cannot have a permanent pet
- Fostering is a great way to volunteer while staying at home
- Fostering can help you find out what kind of cat suits you best before making a commitment
- Fostering allows you to make sure you are not allergic and can handle the responsibility
- Fostering can be a teaching tool for children, how to be responsible pet owners and seeing the impact of their own caring actions
- Fostering is rewarding, as you take in a cat in need and watch it blossom into a confident adoptable cat
Interested in Fostering?
Thank you for your interest in being a Cat Rescue Network foster. Foster homes play a vital role in rehoming
abandoned domestic cats.
First of all you should know that the Cat Rescue Network is a network of various volunteers and volunteer
organizations working together to save cats. Since everyone is a volunteer, there is no 'umbrella'
organization doing the administrative work; just a volunteer coordinator and some assistants.
All expenses, except vet expenses, incurred by a foster are not refundable. They include food, litter,
cat paraphernalia (toys, bed, bowls etc), mileage if you take the cat anywhere. Cat Rescue Network is
sometimes able to provide you with a carrier and some toys and a litter box and perhaps some blankets;
but may not always have these items on hand.
A Cat Rescue Network foster home, takes in animals through the coordinator of the network but the
cats originally have come from individual rescuers or other groups we work with.
Of course, you can always refuse a cat, or limit your intake to a certain age group.
The coordinator decides which cats are taken in to the Network simply because of the costs the Network
incurs when one is taken in (see footnote).
In order to foster you should preferably have a room to isolate the cat/kittens for about 10 days.
Sometimes they come in sick. We deflea and deworm as soon as they come in but may only vaccinate once
they have been observed in a foster home for a while.
Cat Rescue Network pays the vet fees once the coordinator has approved the visit. We deal with a
number of vets. We spay/neuter and vaccinate cats as soon after their arrival as possible; provided
they are healthy, not pregnant and old enough to safely undergo vaccination or surgery.
Cats should be isolated for about 10 days in case they were incubating some illness before the vaccination
takes hold. The brief isolation also allows for deworming and defleaing medication to take effect. Occasionally
the network gets cats who have already been spayed and vaccinated and the isolation period is not as critical.
We also get pregnant mothers and some with newborn kittens. In the case of older, or pregnant cats, the
fostering period can be quite long. We never know for sure.
Cats usually remain in one foster home until adopted, unless they go to one of the pet stores. We do not
like switching foster homes, unless the first foster is going away. We often cannot place a cat in another
home on short notice. We have to wait for another foster home to place its cats before we can move in another
cat so, for that reason, we prefer not to shift between homes too often. Whenever possible we try to keep a
foster home open when the cat/kitten is in the petstore, in case it has to be returned for any reason
(stress, illness, not adopted within two weeks).
The kittens get adopted much more quickly. The pet stores we work with do not adopt our animals out
'over the counter' but refer potential adopters to us. We then screen potential homes. We have a petstore
queue and fosters will bring kittens to the stores because they get adopted more quickly once they are seen.
The usual length of stay in a petstore is about 2 weeks.
The foster parents have a great deal of say about who adopts their cats. If a foster wants cats to be
adopted in pairs, or does not want their cat to go to a certain type of home, then that's how it will be.
However, too many restrictions will mean that the cat remains in foster care a longer period.
All of the cats must be adopted using Cat Rescue Network's adoption process. The foster cannot promise a
cat to anyone before the screening is done, and cannot place the cat anyhere else. The adoption fee is paid
to the network, to cover veterinary costs.
Cats usually arrive as singletons and are considered long term foster cats (although some go quickly,
the longest term has been 2 years. Most go within 6 months to a year). Kittens usually come in fours or
sixes with or without a mother.
A pregnant cat is long term because we have to wait for her to give birth, nurse her kittens for about 7
weeks or more, then we gradually place the kittens, vaccinate the mother, wait a month and spay her.
It would be wonderful, but not necessary if fosters would also advertised the foster cats at work. Posters
are the best way to find homes, especially if the cat's story is attached.
Cat Rescue Network is all volunteer driven so we are not as flexible in taking animals back on short notice,
as a bigger organization with paid staff would be. These are factors for you to consider.
Cat Rescue Network would love to have you as a volunteer and the purpose of this outline is give you a fairly good idea about
what fostering with us will entail.
Footnote 1: If anyone takes in a cat on his/her own, the financial responsibility, including vet care will be
on the person who takes it in, unless/until the coordinator agrees that we can take it in. A foster who takes
in a cat on his/her own but intends to have it adopted through Cat Rescue Network, will be able to put the cat
through the Cat Rescue Network's veterinarians, and place the cat for adoption on the website, and perhaps even
in the petstores we use, but will have to cover the veterinary costs and keep the cat until it is adopted.
If you take in an unadoptable cat, its ongoing care will be entirely your responsiblity.
The reason for this is because the coordinator has personally guaranteed payment to the vet, and any deficit
in Cat Rescue Network funds is covered by the coordinator. So, only the coordinator can authorize expenses.
In sum, the person who accepts a cat on behalf of the Cat Rescue Network pays the vet bills for the cat.
That person is usually the coordinator.
If you have more questions, please contact us.
Foster Contract
If you are still interested in fostering for us, please complete and email
the foster contract.
Foster contract
If you have more questions, please contact us.
The contract is currently in Word Document format - if you are unable to view or have any difficulties
with this please contact the webmaster.