Why We Need Your Help: Herd About Rescue relies solely on the foster care system and therefore on the people who are willing to open their homes and their hearts to dogs in need. Each week we receive calls and emails about dogs needing help and in order to continue helping each dog we are constantly searching for foster homes to meet the growing need.
What Does A Foster Home Do? Foster homes are the safe place that rescue dogs live until their furever families are found. Every dog you see in rescue with HAR is living with a foster family where they receive proper food, vetting, exercise and, most importantly, lots of love. Most dogs need basic vetting (spay/neuter, vaccinations, microchip, etc.) and some minor care like antibiotics for infections and so on. However, sometimes a dog will come into rescue that needs extra special care - more serious medical issues, surgery, obedience training or even sometimes just a place to learn about being part of a family if they’ve never been allowed indoors (as in puppy mill dogs for example).
What Is Expected Of You? We ask all our foster homes understand that there is never a time limit on the amount of time a dog may be in foster care. Some dogs find their furever homes quickly and you may have him/her for only a few weeks while others may be in foster care for months (and even a year or more, although that is rare). Our goal in rescue is to find the home that best matches each dog’s individual needs - so until that home comes along, the dog will stay in foster care. We ask that fosters understand that dogs coming into their home may be frightened or confused and may need time to readjust to life without the family they’ve always loved, or even just to being in a home at all if they’ve been “outdoors only” in their past life. We need our fosters to be patient, loving and kind - and although potty accidents and the like are not common, they DO happen and foster homes need to be understanding and patient.
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What Does HAR Pay For? HAR covers all costs associated with the dog while in foster care. We either set up an account with your vet and pay them directly or we reimburse any costs you have incurred directly to yourself.
How To Become an HAR Foster Home: The process to become a foster home for HAR is actually much like our adoption process really. The following steps must be completed prior to being approved:
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Foster Home Application: You must fill in the foster home application and one of our volnteers will be in touch within a few days to chat more about fostering with HAR.
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Speaking to Your Vet: Please let your veterinarian know we will be calling. We are just looking for basic information and a general reference (i.e.: current pets are in good health and taken care of).
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Home Visit: A volunteer will come to your home to chat with you, in person, about fostering, foster dogs and rescue in general. We want to meet your family and any pets your currently have so please make sure everyone is home! The volunteer will have great tips and information on foster dogs so be sure to ask questions!
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Foster Contract: Once all the above is completed and if you are approved as a foster home you will need to sign the Foster Home Agreement. This agreement outlines what is expected of you and what is expected, by you, of HAR.
Please note that the entire process may take a few weeks depending on how close a volunteer lives to you in order to complete the home visit part of the process and other factors.