• Daily care and a start on training to help the foster animal become a welcome family member.
• Attendance at adopt-a-thon events. Helping to screen applicants for their foster pet.
• Bringing their foster pet to scheduled vet appointments for their spay/neuter surgery and providing post-operative care afterwards.

What JCAPL provides:

• Testing both medical and behavioral, before the pet is placed in its foster home.
• Food, dishes, leash/collars for dogs(toys and treats when items are donated).
• Vaccines, deworming, flea prevention and spay/neuter surgeries.

Why adoptions from foster groups are so accepted by the public:

• There are many individuals who can't bear to walk into a shelter, finding it to be extremely sad and they feel guilty if they don't see a pet that really strikes them. Others feel bad if they are unable to afford to adopt more than one, leaving a littermate behind.
• When people meet foster pets at events or in private, they know that this pet WILL get a home even if they don't 'click' with it. Much of the guilt feelings are absent when they pick up a puppy and snuggle it and then look at the size of their feet and realize that the pup will grow into a dog that is much too big for their home or yard, because they know that even though this adorable puppy will not go home with them, it will find a great home where it will be loved. These foster animals have no time or space limits. As long as they are healthy and friendly, these animals will have a place with a foster family.
• They know that when they find a pet and wish to adopt, this pet has seen a vet. Dogs have been tested for heartworm disease and started on preventative. Cats and kittens have tested negative for feline leukeomia and feline aids. All pets are up to date on their vaccines, they have been dewormed and will be spayed or neutered before they take them home. While we can never 'guarantee' the health of any animal - no one can, adopters can have confidence that everything possible has been done to ensure that the pet they have chosen is healthy.
• Foster families can provide potential adopters with information about the pets individual personalities, their likes, dislikes and habits as they have lived with them. Those fosters with both dogs and cats in their household can let interested families know how the pet gets along with others.
• Pets learn different things while in foster care, for example, my last foster dog learned to 'sit' 'lay down' 'shake' and walk nicely on a leash in addition to getting house broken. These are huge pluses for the pet and make it even more adoptable. Naturally, we don't always have time to teach every foster everything they can learn, but a few basic things can mean a lot to that pet as well as their new family in the future.

The downfall of fostering:

• To be honest, you DO get attached. Even when you say to yourself, "I will not get attached." This animal is NOT staying forever, this is a stop-over in their life and then they will move on...no big deal. I have said this too many times. Now I don't even try to kid myself. I cry as each one moves on, but at the same time I celebrate the fact that without the benefit of being fostered, this animal would very likely be in a plastic bag in the county landfill. The facts are about 2 to 3 out of every 10 animals (depending on the time of year) that go into shelters get adopted. This unfortunately means that 7 - 8 out of 10 are put to death. Every animal fostered, is a life you save. A life you enrich and a bond you help make possible between that animal and its new family when it is adopted out. When I hear from people who now call dogs or cats I have fostered part of their family and they tell me how happy they are and how much they love their new family member, I am overjoyed that I was able to save that pet for them.
• No, fostering is not easy. It requires time, patience and a whole lot of love. If it were easy, everyone who cared for animals would foster. Letting an animal that you bonded with, loved and cared for move on to go off to a family is very difficult. You know that the family had a great application. You are confident that your foster pet is happy with their new humans. You know that pet will have many, many years of happiness and give it back to their new family ten fold. Still, it is hard. These furry creatures manage to twist themselves around your heart and even when they move on a part of them stays with you...forever.