Foster a Pet

Fostering saves lives: be a hero to a homeless pet

When you provide a foster home to an animal from Best Friends or a local shelter, you are part of a lifesaving team working to create a bright, healthy and safe future for homeless dogs and cats around the country.

By fostering, you’re helping to save even more lives by freeing up space in shelters for additional animals. So, what are you waiting for? Snuggles, silliness, fun and friendship await!

Indeed, fostering is an easy, direct and short-term way to make a lifetime of difference. It simply means temporarily opening your home to pets in need and giving them love and care while they wait to be adopted. Best Friends (and some shelters) can provide everything you need, including food, supplies, support and medical care.

Share your home with adorable bundles of love and fuzz.

You’ll officially achieve hero status

A shelter can be a noisy and stressful place, especially for shy and frightened animals. By providing a loving, quiet place for pets to learn and grow, you’re helping to alleviate the burden for a local shelter.

You’re also preparing your foster pet for life as part of a family. For orphans, newborns, and pets with medical or behavioral challenges, a foster home can make all the difference in the world.

Pet fostering Q&A

Ready to get started?

Whether it’s your first time fostering or you’re a pro, organizations around the country are looking for caring people like you.

Become a foster volunteer to change the future for a lucky dog, cat, puppy or kitten, and you’ll be helping to save others by creating space for another pet in need.

Save lives and have a blast

You have plenty of options. Foster a pet from a Best Friends location or from a local network partner organization near you.

Find a Best Friends Network partner near you

The Best Friends Network is made up of thousands of public and private shelters, rescue groups, spay/neuter organizations and other animal welfare groups, all working to save the lives of dogs and cats in communities like yours across the country.

Each and every one of our network partners needs caring people like you to adopt, foster, donate, volunteer and advocate to help save the lives of pets where you live.