Showing posts in [fostering
"Most foster agreements spend three pages on feeding and leash rules and one sentence on who owns the animal. That is the wrong ratio. Here is a ten-clause agreement you can copy, and the argument for why the care rules should be taken out of it entirely."
GeneralThe federal Volunteer Protection Act shields individual volunteers from personal liability for ordinary negligence, but it says in terms that it leaves the organization's own liability untouched, and it drops out the moment a volunteer gets behind the wheel.
DogsA dog that's been passed over for months doesn't need a new kennel — it needs a day at the lake and a photo of itself asleep on someone's couch. Here's how to stand up a field trip and sleepover program that actually moves dogs out the door.
MedicalSix squirming, near-identical puppies, each on their own two-week clock for shots and dewormer — miss a dose and you can leave a whole litter open to parvo. Here's the schedule that actually protects them, and the system that keeps you from losing track.
DogsA foster dog that panics when left alone can look identical to a dog that's just adjusting — and getting the two mixed up is how good dogs get mislabeled, mistreated, or returned. Here's how to tell them apart and run a protocol that actually helps.
MedicalA skeletal dog lands on your intake table and every instinct says feed it, now, as much as it wants. That instinct can kill it. Here's how to bring a starved dog back without triggering refeeding syndrome.
MedicalThe rescue calls and asks if you can take a pregnant dog "any day now." Saying yes means you're about to run a delivery room. Here's how to prepare, what a normal whelping looks like, and the red lines that mean you stop watching and call the vet.
DogsMost foster-dog fights don't happen because the dogs hate each other. They happen because someone rushed the first meeting in the living room. Here's the slow, boring, fight-free way to put two dogs together.
MedicalParvo in a foster-based rescue isn't one sick puppy, it's a network of homes, cars, and volunteers that all just got connected to a virus that lives for months. The first 48 hours decide whether you lose one dog or ten.
GeneralSomeone just handed you a box of newborn kittens with their eyes still shut. The next two weeks are round-the-clock work, and a few rules separate the litters that make it from the ones that don't.
Small animalsA single rescue rabbit is a lonely rabbit, and a bonded pair adopts out faster. But put two strange rabbits together wrong and you'll end up at the emergency vet. Here's the neutral-territory bonding process that actually works, step by step.
MedicalA positive heartworm test scares a lot of rescues into passing on a perfectly adoptable dog. The treatment is long and the rules are strict, but it's routine. Here's how to move a dog from diagnosis to adoption without losing your nerve.
DogsThe dog your foster meets on day one is a dog in survival mode, not the dog they'll adopt out. Most failed placements come from judging a dog too early. Here's the decompression plan to give every dog before you decide who they are.
General · Best PracticesYou said yes to fostering. Now you've got cats on different medications, a kitten litter that needs weighing, and information scattered across five places. Here's how to stay on top of it.
Colony & TNRYou've got a hissing kitten in a carrier and no idea what comes next. Here's what actually works, step by step.
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