Adopting a pet is a commitment. Most cats and dogs live to be around 15 years of age, give or take a few years. This entails years of providing them with a home, food, love, and time. Adopting pets is an amazing thing, and if you’re able, you should 100% take up that responsibility. However, some may feel that they have love to give to new pets, but they aren’t fully ready to add a permanent member to their family. They want to help animals as much as they can but aren’t able to fully adopt a pet. This is where fostering comes in. Fostering a pet is where you give a pet a stable and loving home, while they wait for a permanent home. This way animals can get used to the home environment, as they don’t have to live in a shelter. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the growing population of cats and dogs, shelters have reached well past
their maximum capacities. Fostering a pet not only gives animals a comfortable home but also helps create more room in shelters for other animals, in turn saving many from euthanasia.

Catering to Cats and Dogs (C2CND) is built up by the generous support and assistance of fosters. Fosters with C2CND help animals by teaching them the basics. This includes crate training, litter box training, obedience, staying off of counters, etc. Sometimes the most important thing fosters can do is teach these animals how to trust humans again. Each animal has a different origin story, but they are all in need of care and somebody to trust in. Fosters want to show these animals that they have a home. It may not be a permanent home, but it’s somebody they can rely on until they match with their forever home. A foster’s main job is to treat them as part of the family. C2CND’s motto: “Fostering a pet is not a lifetime commitment; it’s a commitment to save a life.”

Well, how do you foster with C2CND? To foster with C2CND you have to fill out the Adoption Application (https://www.elbowspace.com/secure/cfdMB?xr4=&formts=2009-11-04+07%3A29%3A35.778819&xr99=S&rtxr1=&rtxr2=_). When asked for the Pets Name, put down FOSTER. This way the application will be processed as a foster application. It could take 24-48 hours to hear back. The next steps are a vet reference and once approved, you will hear back from the C2CND team. The volunteers at C2CND can guide you through the process if you have any questions! Before filling out the application, it is expected that you read what is
required of a foster (find it here: https://c2cnd.org/help/volunteering/). Fosters are expected to care for these pets, take them to adoption events, and provide bios/pictures for Petfinder profiles. Different animals have different experiences, meaning some may have medical conditions. C2CND is a non-profit that will assist you with those bills. They will also help provide food for these pets, as long as you let them know in advance. For those adopting cats, C2CND ensures providing you with food, litter, medical services, prevention, and a litter pan and scoop. C2CND is dedicated to providing fosters with any assistance they may need, in order to get these animals
in secure homes.

Fostering, like adopting, is still a commitment. It isn’t long-term like adopting, but it still requires training, patience, and care. However, it shouldn’t be thought of as a chore. It is being devoted to getting pets into a forever home and saving them from overcrowded shelters. Every time someone fosters a pet, they make space for more animals to be saved. Fostering just one animal makes a difference. If you are able, take that step!

Story by: Aaby Marie