Monday, December 21, 2009
Will you foster me? Families give pets a holiday home
Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times
Barbara Dalhouse, president of the board for the RVSPCA, hugs one of two special-needs cats she is fostering for the holidays.
Some of the cats up for adoption at the Roanoke Valley SPCA, which is looking for foster families to give the shelter animals a home for the holidays. Cats, kittens, puppies and a few dogs are looking for a quiet place to get a break from living in crates during the holiday season. Foster time can be as short as two weeks.
Some of the cats up for adoption at the Roanoke Valley SPCA, which is looking for foster families to give the shelter animals a home for the holidays. Cats, kittens, puppies and a few dogs are looking for a quiet place to get a break from living in crates during the holiday season. Foster time can be as short as two weeks.
Nona Nelson, The Happy Wag
Read Nona's blog, The Happy Wag:
Recent columns
Jeb and Osiris, a pair of sweet-faced kitties with coats the color of strong coffee, had rough starts in life. The 7-month-old littermates were exposed to a nasty infection that required them to be quarantined for months.
But the two kittens will get at least a two-week respite from confined life at the Roanoke Valley SPCA Adoption and Education Center where they live. They will spend the holidays with Barbara Dalhouse, the nonprofit agency's board president.
The pair of kitties will lounge for the next two weeks in Dalhouse's studio at her Smith Mountain Lake home. Their vacation accommodations include two large picture windows for watching squirrels, birds and other winter wildlife.
"They'll be in kitty heaven," Dalhouse said. "We'll have a great holiday."
This year the RVSPCA is participating in Petfinder.com's program "Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays." According to the online animal adoption database's Web site, more than 2,000 shelters and rescue groups nationally are placing pets in temporary homes from Christmas to New Year's.
As of last Friday, 21 Roanoke-area families have offered to take in 11 cats, 12 dogs and a rabbit for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, almost one-third of the population of the SPCA.
Jeb and Osiris went home with Dalhouse on Friday; others left over the weekend. Many will go to homes today.
Not like the movies
As much as foster coordinator and adoption services specialist Ann Marie Sweeney would like every pet at the center to have a home for the holidays, she knows it's not likely to happen.
To launch the national fostering campaign, Petfinder.com was a sponsor of a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, "A Dog Named Christmas," which aired on CBS on Nov. 29. The movie, based on a novel by Greg Kincaid, told the story of a family that took in a shelter dog for the holidays.
Sweeney said she wished placing adult dogs in homes was as simple as it was portrayed in the movie, where the dog seamlessly blended into the family.
Acclimating to a new environment, Sweeney said, is easier for felines and young dogs. "Cats can go and just run and hide," Sweeney said. "Puppies can be crated. Adult dogs are harder to place."
Sweeney said she works closely with applicants for the holiday foster program to make sure the pet is compatible with all family members, especially small children and existing pets.
Bringing a new dog in at Christmas may not be an ideal situation if there are already other dogs in the home, if the family has no experience with dogs, or if there will be guests and other seasonal chaos.
"We work to match the energy level and the temperament of the animals to the home," she said. "We want to avoid situations where the animal is going to get stressed and the people are going to get stressed."
The worst-case scenario, Sweeney said, would be to get a call on Christmas Day to pick up a pet that is causing a yuletide meltdown in a foster home.
"We want everyone to have a good experience and a nice holiday," she said.
Sweeney hopes that some of the pets that go out for holiday fostering will find forever homes, if not with their foster families then with someone they meet while out of the shelter.
Foster fail
Some people, my family included, hesitate to take in foster pets because it's heartbreaking to send them back. The Nelson household is a three-time "failure" at fostering, keeping every pet we've ever allowed into our house for more than one night.
Others may worry that the animals will suffer feelings of rejection when returned to the shelter. But Jennifer McFarling, the RVSCPA's staff veterinarian, said that's not been the case with most fosters.
"We've seen way more benefit in helping the animals adjust to life in a home," she said. "And fosters are good at getting them out and socializing them. The animals appreciate that type of interaction."
Stacy Roberson, a dental hygienist who lives in Roanoke, has fostered six puppies for the SPCA over the past two years. She admits she grows very attached to her fosters.
"You have to tell yourself they are going to a loving home," she said. "And all of mine have."
She said she has helped find homes for some of her foster pups by letting friends know she has one available for adoption and posting the pups' photos on her Facebook page.
She also said that time spent with her and her 11-year-old Dalmatian mix Lucy allows her to pass on valuable information to the SPCA when she does return the pups.
"I give them a synopsis of what the dog is like," she said. "This helps place the pup in a home best suited for his or her personality."
Still time to foster
For anyone planning a quiet holiday at home, a dog or cat could be a perfect companion, and it's not too late to foster in 2009.
Sweeney said prospective caregivers should fill out the application at the SPCA's Web site, www.rvspca.org, and call her this week.
Foster families are sent home with emergency phone numbers, food, bowls, toys, leashes, collars, litter and litter boxes.
"All we ask is that they give them a little love and care over the holidays," Sweeney said.
Santa Claus won't forget the dogs and cats that will remain at the shelter, Sweeney said. Each pet will get new toys and treats, including a couple of donated cases of doggy carrot cake, for Christmas. Volunteers will be there to walk the dogs, not just clean their crates and feed them.
Milestone pet adopted
Just before Thanksgiving, a gray tabby named Nicki became the 10,000th pet adopted at the SPCA since the doors to the adoption center opened in 2004.
As happy as he was to mark that milestone, Bill Watson, the SPCA's executive director, said he had hoped to reach it much earlier in the year. Adoptions were down this year, with 1,600 pets finding new homes in 2009, 400 fewer than in 2008.
"We celebrate this as a success," Watson said. "But we can't lose sight of the ones that still need homes."
According to the SPCA Web site, the number of adoptions is now up to 10,081.
