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.

Woman and cat on sofa illustration

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.

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.

Find a network partner near you today:

Find a network partner near you today:
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Smiling person bottle-feeding a tabby kitten

New to fostering?

Foster kittens are a great way to get started. Give us your email, and we’ll get you everything you need to know.

Lifesaving tales of love and resilience

Meet a few of the amazing animals who've found healing and happiness at our sanctuary and lifesaving centers and with our network partners.
Person holding a small dog outside

Looking for something more permanent?

There are plenty of loving, loyal pets around the country ready for adoption.