The Urgent Need to Foster Dogs: Lending a Helping Paw to Shelters and Rescues

It’s no secret that animal shelters across Ontario are bursting at the seams with homeless dogs. The rising cost-of-living post-pandemic has made it difficult for many families to care for their pets properly. As a result, shelters have seen an influx of returned dogs, leading to overcrowding. Here’s where fostering comes into play as a lifeline to our furry friends:

Fostering saves lives.

By welcoming a furry friend into your home, you provide individualized care, socialization, and stability to an animal that may otherwise face euthanasia. Fostering reduces stress in the shelter environment, allowing shelter staff to focus on cases requiring immediate attention. Your kindness gives the lucky dogs renewed hope for a brighter future and increases their chances of finding a fur-ever home.

Fostering helps adoption chances. 

Dogs in foster care can fully showcase their personality, helping them get matched with the right adoptive family. As a foster, you gather valuable insights into the dog’s personality, and compatibility with children and other pets, enabling individuals or families to determine whether a specific dog fits their lifestyle.

Some dogs come to shelters with specific needs or behaviours that require one-on-one care and socialization. While we don’t always know this upfront, we will be honestwith you and share what we know so you can decide if you can help.

Fostering is good for your well-being. 

Opening your home to a foster dog can be equally rewarding for you. Without a long-term commitment, you get all the benefits of having a dog, including wet kisses, warm snuggles and daily walks! Fostering a dog leaves an indelible pawprint on your heart.

If you have a lot of extra love and a little more time to spare, please consider becoming a foster paw-rent. Contact Emma at Coveted Canines and Creatures Rescue so we can rescue more dogs across Ontario together: foster@covetedcanines.org 

P.S. We gratefully accept donations if you can’t be a foster paw-rent but want to help. One hundred percent of your donation goes directly to support the dogs in our care, like Boris (view his bio here) who is undergoing extensive training or the adorable Maggy (view her bio here) that needed a lot of medical support and ongoing medication.

Coveted Canines and Creatures Rescue is a not-for-profit organization that rescues animals at high risk of being euthanized or vulnerable to abuse. We are wholly volunteer-driven by individuals donating their time and expertise for the love of animals.