Local animal shelters often struggle to adopt enough dogs and cats to keep from reaching capacity.
Saturday, Aug. 25, the Humane Society of Pulaski County opened its doors to people who could be a short-term solution for pets in need.
“My family started fostering nine years ago, now” Troy Brazile said, “and now we’re 117 animals into it. So, it’s very fulfilling, and I would definitely recommend it for anybody that wants to give back and loves animals.”
Brazile is the Foster Coordinator for the Humane Society of Pulaski County. He led a seminar to advise potential pet foster parents.
“It is a big commitment,” he acknowledged.
Aside from its full-time staff, Brazile said the Humane Society has a network of approximately three dozen families that regularly foster animals. They typically keep the animals for four to six weeks. Most of the animals are too young to be adopted. Some, however, are older and in poor health, and the families that take them make a longer commitment.
“It works well,” Brazile said, “for people who are retired, who are home-based, or if they’ve… we’ve got a lot of homeschool families that do fostering with their kids.”
Brazile said the shelter had more than 200 animals fostered last year, which is more than average, and he wants more families involved so they can share the load.
Monique Harvey, a kennel worker at the non-profit shelter, said she is now fostering her second animal. She said bottle-feeding a baby kitten until it is old enough to be adopted is an amazing responsibility.
“Working with these little, bitty ones, it is so rewarding,” she exclaimed. “Especially when you see them, the little gains they make every day.”