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Foster A Shelter Animal
Enrich Their Lives and Yours!
Foster care volunteers provide temporary care for kittens, puppies, dogs and cats. Some animals may only need a home for several days, while others may need several months of care. By offering your time, energy, and home to an animal in need, you prepare an animal for adoption into a permanent home as well as prevent overcrowding in our shelter. The Sacramento SPCA is always looking for foster families to help save more animal lives.
Foster Care Choices
Foster candidates are carefully matched with foster homes according to the candidate's special needs and the foster parent's abilities. Whether you work full time or you spend most of your time at home, we'll help match you with a foster animal that fits your lifestyle.
Many foster parents have companion animals of their own. We recommend that foster parents keep their own companion animals isolated from their foster animals. A separate room or enclosed area with no carpet works best for a foster animal. For example, a warm spare bedroom or laundry room is an excellent place to foster a cat or kittens.
Support and Resources to Help You
The Sacramento SPCA is there to help ensure your success as a foster parent. We'll offer you as much training as you need as well as supplies. Help from our staff is just a phone call away. Each of our forster parents are given a foster care manual and a 24-hour emergency number in case there are questions or problems arise.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of animals need foster care?
Kittens or puppies that are too young to be adopted
Nursing cats and dogs
Animals awaiting adoption
Ill or injured animals that may need regular medication or medical attention
Animals susceptible to stress from a shelter environment
What are the requirements to be a foster parent?
Foster parents must be at least 18 years of age
Foster parents must fill out and sign a foster care application
Foster parents must attend a foster parent training session
Are there any expenses incurred by foster parents?
Foster parents receive all the supplies necessary to care for their foster animal. Food, bedding newspaper and crates are typical of items sent home with foster parents. We will provide any medicine needed and our veterinary staff is readily available to provide any medical care needed by the foster animal.
Why should I become a foster parent?
We believe that the abandoned and abused animals that enter our shelter deserve to have the best possible chance at finding a loving, permanent home. A foster parent has one of the most important jobs at the shelter. Foster parents allow our animals to receive the proper care and attention they deserve as they wait for adoption. As a foster parent you'll not only save the lives of animals in your care, but you'll give other animals coming into the shelter who may not need the same level of medical attention, a space on our adoption floor to find their own loving homes. If those aren't enough reasons to become a foster parent, consider these:
Foster animals are temporary companions offering their love freely
You'll be helping to socialize a shelter animal so they become more adoptable and better companions
You can put that spare bedroom to good use
You'll delight at the smiles on the faces of the family that adopts your foster animal and possibly make new friends along the way
Fostering helps you explore many different breeds of dogs and cats to help you decide which traits you'd like in your next companion animal
If for some reason you can't keep a full-time companion animal, fostering for short time periods is an ideal solution
You'll know that you're making a huge difference in the lives of your fosters
Ready to Be a Foster Parent?
- Complete, print out, sign, and mail the Foster Parent Supplemental Application
(You need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to open both documents.)
- Mail, fax, or drop off this document to:
Foster Parent Applications
Sacramento SPCA
6201 Florin-Perkins Road
Sacramento, CA 95828
Fax: (916) 383-7062
(Note: we cannot accept Foster Parent Applications over our web site or email.)
- Attend a Foster Parent Training Session. After we receive your application, a staff member will contact you to schedule a Foster Training Session. We recommend that you also attend a New Volunteer Orientation. This is an excellent way to learn about other volunteer opportunities at the Sacramento SPCA.
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