Become a Foster Parent

Our foster parents quite literally save an animal’s life. Often we are faced with requests to take animals that we do not have space for in the building, or who are too young or ill to be ready for adoption. But if we find foster placements for those animals, we can generally accept that animal into our care, providing them with life-altering veterinary care, and prevent that animal from being surrendered to a municipal shelter or even dumped on the street.

The Humane Society provides all supplies (food, dishes, pee pads, litter box, litter, scoop, toys, beds, carrier and/or kennel, collar/harness/leash, medications if necessary) for foster pets, and provides all veterinary care, including routine preventative care, for our foster pets.

Before you foster, you should know a few things about what we ask and expect of our pet foster parents:

• Fosters must verify that all animals in their homes are up to date on vaccinations, and when age appropriate, spayed/neutered.
• Fosters must be allowed to keep pets in their home, if they rent or do not own their own home.
• Fosters must be able to transport their foster pet to and from regular veterinary appointments at our clinic – puppies and kittens will be vaccinated and given preventative treatments every two weeks; animals with other medical needs may require more frequent appointments.
• Fosters must be available to bring pets in for recheck appointments during specific hours at our clinic – we reserve 1-3pm Monday through Thursday for foster appointments and can schedule foster recheck appointments not requiring an on-site veterinarian on Fridays and Saturdays between 10am-3pm. If working within those hours will be difficult for you, please check in with our foster coordinator before submitting your foster application by emailing hhooke@memphishumane.org.
• Fosters should have an appropriate space in their home to keep their pet – often times foster pets do best when they start in a small area of the foster’s home, and are introduced slowly to any other pets.
• Fosters must feed pets and give any medications the pet needs (will be provided by HSMSC).
• Fosters should socialize and encourage good behavior with their pets.
• Fosters must be prepared to monitor their pet’s health and report any concerns to HSMSC right away.

In general, our foster pet requests will be for pets that fit one or more of the following categories: needs puppy/kitten quarantine away from the shelter; too young to be spayed/neutered; sick or injured; rehabilitating an injury; suffering from a chronic illness; older or longer term resident of the shelter.

We do not accept requests to place specific healthy, young and adoptable pets from our website in foster care. If, after fostering for a few weeks, you do want to adopt your foster pet, you will need to complete an adoption application and wait for approval before moving forward with that process. If you are signing up to foster with the Humane Society because you want to try out a specific pet, or are looking to adopt a specific type of pet, we recommend that you start the adoption process instead of initiating a foster placement. 

To take the next step to become a foster parent for the Humane Society, click here.

Once you have filled out the foster parent application, it is reviewed by our foster coordinator, and they will reach out with any questions. If there are no questions and your application is approved, you will be added to our foster list, and will begin receiving email requests for foster placements as pets come in to the Humane Society.

If you have any questions, please email Hillary Hooke at hhooke@memphishumane.org.