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

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. 

When you foster a pet, 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!

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Foster with Best Friends

Best Friends is partnering with these communities throughout the country to help save their homeless pets, and you can be a part of that lifesaving when you raise your hand to foster:

No-Kill Los Angeles (NKLA)  •   No-Kill Utah (NKUT)  •   Brownsville, Texas  •  Navajo Nation  •  Rio Grande Valley, Texas

Foster for an animal shelter or rescue group 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 foster, adopt, donate, volunteer and advocate to help save the lives of pets where you live.

Find a network partner near you today:

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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.

Still have questions? More about fostering »

What to expect when you foster a pet

Fostering a pet 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.

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Foster Volunteer Tasks

Typical responsibilities in the day of a pet foster caregiver include feeding, caring for, and socializing the pet (or pets) you’re fostering.

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Time Commitment

Fostering a pet is a flexible way to help make a difference in the lives of pets because you can foster a dog or cat for just a night or two — or for several weeks — depending on what works best for your lifestyle and schedule.

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Volunteer Requirements

Best Friends (and some shelters) can provide everything you need, including food, supplies, support, and veterinary care; you’ll just need to provide the love.

Lifesaving tales of love and resilience

Meet a few of the amazing animals who've found healing and happiness because of caring foster volunteers.

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More ways you can help the animals

As thousands of animals looking for families of their very own remain in shelters around the country, one of the most valuable gifts you can give them is your time.