Foster Program

What Is Foster Care?

Foster care is accepting the pet into your family and providing a loving caring environment. While we prefer fosters who can provide a stable environment for each pet until it is adopted into it's forever home, we rely on fosters who will commit to at least one week. It is also an alternative for those animal lovers who cannot make a long-term commitment to a pet, but would still like to help homeless pets in need.

Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue provides all medical care, and when necessary the basic needs for your foster care including food, bowls, crate, and litter when available.

Adoption Events

“We hold Adoption Day at the Bellevue Petco every Saturday, and ask that you bring the pet by 10:45 am. While it is not required that the pet be at Adoption Day every Saturday, the more exposure the more likely of finding a permanent home for the pet. If the pet is not adopted, and providing you can continue to foster, pick-up time is 1:45 pm.

We do require fosters to complete the regular adoption application and go through the review process as many fosters decide to adopt at one time or another and this ensures that all approvals are in place before you fall in love.

Please keep in mind that we do not evaluate each home individually. Not all homes are suitable to act as a foster. If you think you will be the perfect person to provide a loving safe environment than please contact us! All dogs already in your home MUST be up to date on vaccines and on heart worm preventative.

First, let us thank you for your interest in fostering for Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue. Fostering can be quite demanding and sometimes frustrating, but once we find a dog/cat its forever home and you see that all of your hard work has paid off, it makes fostering a very rewarding experience.

Foster Responsibilities

PLEASE KNOW THE RESPONSIBILITY OF FOSTERING BEFORE VOLUNTEERING

Main Responsibilities:

Warm & Nurturing Environment
Provide a warm, safe and nurturing home and environment for the animal until its new forever home is found. All our dogs/cats should be kept 'inside' dogs/cats. All animals must have outside access but will NOT live outside. All animals will sleep INSIDE your home, in an appropriate area. All our dogs/cats should be kept 'inside' dogs/cats. All animals must have outside access but will NOT live outside.

Vet Appointments
If required, you will take the animal to all necessary vet appointments-prior approval from Lavonne Redferrin or Laura Brigham. We will cover the cost of vet care.If your foster animal needs emergency veterinary care, you agree to contact Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue immediately. As with routine care, emergency veterinary care must be approved in advance.

Exposure
If your dog is physically and emotionally able, we need you to bring your foster dog to our Petco Adoption Days at least once or twice a month which is held every Saturday at the Petco in Bellevue from 11am-2pm. You do not have to stay the entire time and are welcome to just drop off your foster and return for pick up if not adopted.

Expectations:

All new fosters must understand that in most cases we do not know the history of the animal in question. We will have an idea of their temperament and how they interact with people and other animals as they will USUALLY be assessed by our vet.

The first few days a foster animal is in its new temporary home can be stressful for both the animal and the foster. Keep in mind the animal is now living in a new situation. It may have an accident-it probably WILL have an accident. The animal may have lived its whole life outside or it does not know where exactly it should go. The bottom line is that every foster animal needs at least a week, maybe more to become acclimated to their new surroundings (the average dog takes 3 weeks to relax in a new environment.)

We ask that new fosters keep an animal for a minimum of a week before deciding to return a foster back to us unless urgent. As stated above, some animals need time to adjust to new surroundings.If, however, the foster is not working out, Proverbs will ALWAYS take the animal back, but it may take our volunteers a day or two and sometimes longer to make alternate arrangements for the foster animal. We ask for your patience during these times. Most of our volunteers work full-time jobs during the day and do rescue work during their lunch hours, after work and weekends. We cannot always respond ASAP and can always provide behavioral advice during the interim-we recommend all fosters own a crate in case you ever need to separate your animals.

The goal of Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue is to place our animals into the BEST possible home. You may have a foster for a week or you might have the foster for several months, depending on the animal. This also means that at times, we disappoint potential adopters who very much wanted the dog/cat because we decided the adopter was not suitable for the dog/cat or vice versa. If you cannot commit the time please do not apply to foster a dog.

You will get to know your foster animal better than anyone. In order for us to promote each animal and to find them the best home, we require regular updates on your foster. That will include any changes such as weight, personality, likes and dislikes, and behaviors. Getting updated pictures of your foster is SO IMPORTANT (a picture is worth a thousand words and goes very far in the animal getting noticed on our website). If you cannot provide pictures and updates please let us know and we can work something out.