What exactly does fostering mean? It means bringing a homeless feline into your home, caring for them, and providing them with affection and socialization, until a permanent family comes along who will love them forever.
Feral Feline Friends has no central facility, and relies solely on foster homes to determine how many cats we can accept. Every time we have foster space, we’re able to bring in another feline from an otherwise unsafe or undeserving environment.
Often times, certain cats may not "show" well in a kennel environment due to excess energy, or jockeying for attention as potential adopters walk by. While fostering a cat, you are able to provide exercise and stimulation, which in turn creates a calmer cat in the kennel which in many cases may be closer to what their behavior will look like in a home environment. In addition, you can work with the cat on leash training, house training, or other basic command training, that potential adopters will find attractive when looking for the perfect cat for their family. Having the feline in your home also provides you with an opportunity to get to know them better than if they were in a shelter environment, and knowing more about the feline always helps when talking to potential adopters.
While the majority of our felines are tame, Feral Feline Friends often looks to fosters for those cats who may have endured a difficult past such as abuse, cruelty, neglect, under socialization, etc. As a foster, you have the chance and opportunity to gain a cats trust, show them human touch and love perhaps for the first time, provide an environment for them to feel safe, and watch them transform before your eyes.
If you have existing pets, introducing a cat can be a great experience for them as an additional companion, additional socialization, and an additional playmate! Children can benefit from fostering as a way to introduce responsibility, selflessness, a way to educate about animals, and is also a great way to "test" the idea of a permanent cat into the home in the future.
Fellow fosters from the Feral Feline Friends will help guide you through the experience, give ideas, answer any questions, and may even become your friends! There is nothing quite like sharing experiences with those who do the same and being part of a community of people who have like passions.
When the day comes, that your foster finds that perfect home, the rewarding feeling you will experience is something very special. You will feel a sense of pride, in knowing what you helped that dog accomplish in his time with you. You will feel overjoyed, that he has found his forever family and his happy ending that all homeless cats so desire. And while certainly, some goodbyes can be tough, knowing that a cat has found his happy ending and that another precious life awaits to be afforded your gifts, is as good of a feeling as there is!
If you’ve decided that fostering is right for you, be sure to complete our online foster application today!
