Thank you for choosing to open your home and your heart to a homeless pet in need! Often, there are more animals needing foster care than there are foster homes, so it’s always great when someone chooses to join our foster care program.

A variety of pets come to us needing more care than we can provide at the shelter: young kittens, puppies needing training, shy animals needing socializing, animals recovering from surgery, etc. That’s where our foster homes come in! We provide our foster parents with all the supplies they will need while they provide the animals with lots of TLC.

Fostering makes a difference! Animals have been able to heal from injuries, come out of their shells, and eventually find loving homes – all thanks to our foster parents.

Start the process below!

The fostering process is as follows:

1. Fill out a foster care application.
2. Have landlord approval if necessary.
3. Host a home-visit by Loving Heart staff.

What is the foster care program?

Through the foster care program, Loving Heart Animal Shelter is able to temporarily place animals into the homes of volunteers until the animals are adopted into loving homes of their own.

What supplies does a foster parent have to provide?

Loving Heart Animal Shelter will provide foster parents with all supplies necessary to care for foster animals.

What does a foster parent do?

A foster parent is responsible for providing foster animals with a secure home, food, water, socialization, training, and exercise. Socialization and training should be done in a way that encourages good behavior in foster animals.

Foster parents must also administer medications to foster animals (as necessary), observe foster animals and report any problems or questions to Loving Heart, and bring animals to events as requested by Loving Heart.

Who benefits from the foster care program?

• THE ANIMALS. Foster care for shelter animals gives them an opportunity to relax from the stressful shelter environment. The animals learn what living in a home is like, which can increase their chances of success in adoptive homes.
• THE FOSTER PARENT(S). Being a foster parent is a very rewarding experience, because you play a vital role in helping foster animals come out of their shells and eventually find loving homes of their own.
• THE COMMUNITY. Foster care provides the community with a larger segment of healthy, socialized animals.

What is a "foster failure?"

A foster failure is when a foster parent decides to adopt one of their foster animals.