Fostering Saves Lives
Foster parents provide temporary homes for dogs/puppies and cats/kittens before adoption. Providing foster care is a beautiful and personal way to contribute to saving homeless pets.
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Pets thrive in homes, and that is our goal. Fostering helps reduce overcrowding in shelters and opens up space for another animal to be saved. It also helps prepare animals for adoption by giving them a chance to live in a home where they can fully express their personality, work to overcome fears, or recover from trauma.
Open your home to a pet in need!
Reach out to our foster team via email: foster@pvastx.org or phone/text: 956-278-0702‬
CAT FOSTER OPPORTUNITIES
Help cats recover
Raise some kittens
It is NOT a worm, as the name may lead you to believe. In fact, it is very closely related to Athlete’s Foot found commonly in humans. It most commonly affects young animals and those with suppressed immune systems. Immune systems drop when animals are brought into shelters. Ringworm manifests itself on kittens generally on the head, around the eyes, ears, feet, and tail in round areas of hair loss that are rough and scaly.
Treatments have to be given regularly for these cats. We'll show you how to give the treatments and provide all the medication you need. Outside of their ringworm diagnosis, these fosters are otherwise healthy and happy!
Fosters for neonatal kittens act as surrogate mothers. Bottle babies must be fed formula every two-to-four hours until they are four weeks old, stimulated to go to the bathroom, kept on a heat source, weighed before each feeding, and closely monitored for illnesses. Foster parents tell us it’s more than worth the effort when they see the babies grow and thrive.
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Foster commitment for neonate babies averages between 2-4 weeks depending on the age when foster receives the babies. Once four weeks old, neonates might only need supplemental feedings so wouldn't need a foster to be home all day. Unweaned kittens, usually between 4-6 weeks old, eat primarily canned food and just need a little bit more supervision than they get in a shelter environment.
SHORT TERM FOSTER OPPORTUNITIES
Only Have the Weekend to Give?
Looking for a friend for the day?
A weekend away from the shelter gives an animal a break from the noise and chaos of shelter life and lets us find out if they are housetrained, crate trained, and what they act like when they are in a home.
Take dogs out around town, get them a snack through the drive-thru, take them on a walk on a trail, or just drive them around with the wind blowing through their hair. Just like you, dogs need a mental health break sometimes too!
THE PROCESS
We want to make fostering with us as accessible as possible. However, we do have some requirements for participating.
To get started, complete the dog or cat foster questionnaire. We’ll reach out when a pet meeting your criteria is ready. If you have dogs, we can arrange a meet and greet with your pets at our shelters.
Our greatest need is foster homes for medium-to-large (40-60lbs) dogs.
REQUIREMENTS
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Be at least 18 years old
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Live within a reasonable travel distance to your chosen shelter
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Provide transportation for veterinary visits or emergencies
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Offer a safe, indoor, temperature-controlled space and adequate food
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Stay in contact with your Foster Coordinator and Foster Coach
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SUPPORT OUR FOSTER PROGRAM
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Our organization relies on community support to do the lifesaving work we do. Be a part of this work and donate today! Your donation will allow us to grow our programs and help more animals across the RGV.
