Fostering is really rewarding. It also involves a lot of effort and dedication by everyone in the home. Before you even start considering fostering, ask yourself: is everyone in your home on board? This includes asking whether or not your current resident animals are good candidates to welcome others into their home. If not, then you must put their needs above your desire to help.
Is what we do right for you?
Sit With Me focuses on shelter dogs in need. This means that we take dogs from the shelter system who are not candidates for the shelter’s traditional adoption process. These shelters reach out to us with the dogs they feel are best candidates for rescue. Our volunteers meet and evaluate each dog before they come into care which gives the rescue an idea of what the dogs need in a foster home. Of course, things may change once the dog is in care.
The dogs we are asked to help usually have medical concerns, behaviour issues, special needs, and/or are a prohibited breed. This means, right off the bat, we can tell you that the majority of dogs that we take in are medical cases, senior dogs, dogs with mobility issues, dogs with varying levels of training needs, and dogs that are affected by breed specific legislation (BSL), such as pit bull type dogs. If none of these are dogs you would consider fostering, then we are not the right fit for each other, and that’s okay! Chances are that there is another organization out there that would be a better match for you, so please do not be discouraged. Do your research and find one that can put you to work!
The process
Our foster process begins on the next page. It outlines a few things to consider when fostering with us and then it brings you to a questionnaire that helps determine if you are a good match for the type of dogs we most often take into care. If you are a potential match, you will be then be asked to complete our foster application. Once complete, it will be sent electronically to our foster team (at foster@sitwithme.ca) and it will enter the queue to be processed. We then review application and schedule a phone interview to discuss fostering and to answer your questions. If we have a dog in mind, we will discuss the dog as well. After the call, if all goes well, we will electronically send you some documentation to review and contracts to sign, we will check references and one of our volunteers will schedule a home visit with you. After that, we wait until we find a match for you. This can take hours, days, weeks and in some cases longer depending on your restrictions. We will let you know if we feel the length might be longer than usual.
When we find a dog we feel could be a match for you, you will be contacted and we will let you know everything we know about the dog to ensure you are on board too. If you agree, you will be assigned a foster coordinator upon your first dog’s arrival so you will have a go-to person from day one.
Your coordinator will book your dog’s medical needs, will guide you through any issues that come up, and will coordinate pick up of dog food or other necessary items. If you have vacation planned, your foster coordinator will help determine placement for your dog while you are away too. If an emergency arises, you have your coordinator as well as a list of other coordinators you can contact to help you. And once your dog is ready for adoption, your coordinator will help guide you through that process as well. You are never alone, and communication is always key!
Click the button below to start the process to become a foster home.
