When people think of fostering, they tend to think of long-term situations, from a few weeks to a few months. Sometimes, though, we call upon an extra special group of volunteers that is not often highlighted - emergency, short-term fosters.
Early last week, one of the PAWS dogs partially opened her incision site while recovering from a routine spay surgery. It required attention in the form of proper bandaging and lots of calm, restful healing. Sounds easy enough...unless you're talking about a young, large, highly energetic dog like Elvira, with absolutely no interest in rest and relaxation. We knew our pristine bandaging would be destroyed the moment we left her unattended.
As our medical staff was cleaning and wrapping her up, our adoption team was making calls for an emergency overnight foster. Literally, as we stuck on the last bit of bandaging and knotted her t-shirt in place, Debbie and Tom were pulling into the parking lot. Elvira headed out on her sleepover.
One night ultimately stretched into 4 nights, with daily trips to PAWS for bandage changes. It was exactly what she needed and what PAWS needed. Elvira returned to PAWS, healed and happy, to continue working with her Pet Partners on training and to search for her forever home. Her temporary foster parents are on deck and ready to step in the next time we call.
Week after week, we make calls like the one we did to Debbie and Tom. Honeycrisp needed daily subcutaneous fluids, force feeding, and a plethora of medications. Gino needed a "normal" home environment to help pull him from his completely depressed state. Cumulus needed a space with no other cats and a foster willing to ensure she got lots of medication. They all went to, and recovered in, emergency foster homes.
You hear PAWS, and other rescues and shelters, talk about the importance of and need for fosters all the time. We frankly can't praise them or thank them enough. Our fosters quite literally save lives every single day.
If you are interested in serving as a foster, now is a great time to help out. We work to get nearly every animal out of the building and home for the holidays, if only for a couple of weeks. You can read more and apply here.
