Being a foster parent

[Yellowroses]

Hi everyone,

As you all I'm a foster parent. I've been one for almost 4 years now. There is joy and heartache in being a foster parent. I've lost cats and kittens while in my care. I've had a hard time keeping some alive. But I feel good that I have given many the chance to fight for their lives. I want this thread for fellow foster parents to come and talk about their experiences. Also I welcome anyone who wants to know about fostering to join in the forum. Anyone can post in this thread. Let's have fun posting.

[Lor]

It doesn't really count but we use to always have strays living under our porch when I was younger, we found homes for the ones we could, and ended up keeping afew ourselves.. It saddens me to think that if we had that many strays in our tiny neighbourhood of around 20 houses, there must be an awful lot more in big cities.

Recently I was taking care of one cat that I rescued her from horrible living conditions. I wasn't planning to keep her at first but she'd been in so many homes already, it wasn't fair to put her in yet another one, I knew I could provide her with a stable home, so I decided to keep her. She is destroying a roll of TP as I type LOL.

I never planned on bringing another cat into our house, but do we ever really decide to give a cat a home? Most of my pet cats have chosen me.

The first month I had her, I decided whether of not I kept her, she HAD to be spayed. Now every other time I've gotten a cat fixed, when I go to pick them up, they are always relieved to see me. When I went to pick up Lucy from the vet, she was relaxed and playing with a mousie I had left her. She seemed to think that I had taken her here because it was a new home for her. When she looked up and saw me, she was surprised, it seemed as though she was saying " Oh you came back?" That was pretty much the day I decided she needed a stable home.

I am interested in fostering, but I really need to move into a bigger place first. How did you decide you wanted to get into fostering? Do you have any stories you'd like to share with us?

[DirtySouthChins]

The hubby and I did some minor fostering back in the states, however being back over here in Naples, Italy we have done quite a bit since Nov.03 We have already taken in 15 Dogs/Puppies, currently still have 2 and have taken in 4 Cats, a litter of 5 one day old kittens (3 didn't make it, the other 2 were put down at 10 days old due to ringworm) and now we are currently bottle feeding a litter of 3 kittens who are now about 19 days old, and are doing great. So far all of the Dogs/Puppies we have fostered have found great new homes as well as the cats, with the exception of King George who ran off one day about a month ago. The majority of these animals were strays that my hubby and I took in, got medical attention for, shots, ect. Alot of people don't understand what is we do, as they think we are over whelming ourselves with animals, but what they don't understand is we have a limit on how many come into our home at one time, and when one is adopted out that leaves room for another. We also have our isolation area where every animal spends at least 7-10 days for clearance before being introduced to our own pets. We love what we do, and since we can not have children together this is what is right for us. We were brought back here to Italy for a reason. When we first got here in October, we found a house that we thought was great, however due to the problems we were having and the lack of size due to our fostering we even went the distance of breaking our lease to have a better home for ourselves, more romping space for our own pets, as well as more space to foster animals that need a great home. We plan on opening a rescue type shelter one day, along with a boarding facility for military members on deployment only, as most of the animals that get left behind here, or dumped at shelters back in the states are from those military members doing long deployments and have no place for their animal to go. I know what my husband and I do is alot of work, and we have both lost alot of sleep in doing what we do, but it is what is right and what need's to be done over here. However we aren't alone, there are about 10 of us that volunteer over here with a group called Naples Friends of Animals, but most live in housing so they can't foster, but they do pick up the strays and get them steralized which is great. Okay I think I've babbled enough , have a great one ~Kim~