Fostering a pet is an extremely rewarding and fun experience for the entire family. If you’re looking to make a difference in the life of an animal, but can’t make the commitment to adopt, fostering may be the answer. A foster home provides temporary care for a pet in their home while the pet waits for permanent adoptive home or for a rescue group to pull them.

Darlington County Humane Society’s Rescue Team gives foster parents all of the training and support needed to be a successful foster parent. We provide all medical needs for the foster animal in your care. Foster parents also receive a schedule of dates on which the animal is due back to the shelter for vaccinations, worming/flea medications, and health checks. Foster parents are expect to transport their foster pet to the shelter for spay/neuter appointments and for transport day if they are scheduled to leave for rescue. Foster parents are expected to provide quality care by feeding multiple times per day, administering medications when necessary, keeping updated records, keeping their foster animals living area clean, providing basic training such as sit, come and leave it, leash training, potty training, and crate training. But above all else foster parents are expected to provide love and a safe environment for their foster pet.

As kitten/puppy season approaches, it is important to have dependable foster homes ready and waiting to provide love and care to kittens & puppies in need. We prefer to keep young kittens and puppies out of the shelter environment and with foster families until they are big enough to be placed for adoption. We also need foster homes to foster adult dogs and cats while they recover from illness, to help free up kennel space with in the shelter, or provide a home environment before they leave on transport going to a rescue group who then places them in forever homes. There is also a large demand for foster parents to help with nursing moms and their babies. The simple fact of the matter is newborns do not do well in a shelter. The death rate is very high due to the stress of the mom and the numerous diseases that puppies and kittens aren’t able to fight off. A home environment increases their chances of living healthy lives tremendously.

It can be easy to fall in love with any animal especially one that has depended on you. Please take the time to discuss the way your family will handle seeing an animal that you care for leaving you to live with their new loving family. The magic of fostering is knowing that you were able to help an animal heal and then move on to live a wonderful life. A small amount of your time will surely change the life of that pet!

If you feel you are up for the challenge, please fill out our foster application below and submit it to our Foster Coordinators. They will review your application and contact you about our fostering opportunities at Darlington County Humane Society.

Commit to fostering, click here to begin!