One of A Kind Education

At One Of a Kind, we consistently have hundreds of dogs and cats under our care. A number of them are at our Adoption Center and clinic, but an even larger number are in our network of volunteer foster homes.

Some animals are not able to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated for many reasons. In these cases, we like to place them into a foster home to allow them a calmer, more comfortable environment to stay in until they are ready for adoption. While our cat and dog foster programs have the same basic function, they do differ in a few areas.

Pregnant and nursing cats are almost exclusively kept in foster homes, while our adoption center houses six birthing suites to allow dogs to give birth and nurse in our care. If we have more than six nursing dogs at any given time, we will place them in a foster home with their litter. The length of stay for these animals is typically around 2 months long, or until the babies are roughly 8 weeks old and weaned from mom.

We do also look for short-term older puppy fosters while they await their surgery date. We like to send the puppies out in pairs (or the whole litter if you can handle it!) Fosters typically care for them for 2-3 weeks.

In some cases, we will be presented with orphaned puppies and kittens, or moms who are not able to care for an entire litter if the number is too large. When this happens, we look for skilled bottle-feeding fosters who will care for and feed these puppies and kittens up to every two hours even through the night! Situations like this occur very frequently with kittens, especially during kitten season, which is most active from early spring to late summer. These animals typically need to stay in foster care until they are 2 months old and weigh 2 pounds, making them a candidate for spay and neuter. In these cases, puppy litters can be split into pairs, but we like to keep litters of kittens together.

Foster families can have their own pets, but they must be spayed or neutered and up to date on vaccines. A foster family’s own pets should not interact with our rescue animals to prevent spread of illness as some of these animals may be waiting on medical care or are not yet fully vaccinated due to age or other medical reasons.

Fostering provides many benefits for both the animals and the humans who foster them! We supply all food and medical care for the fosters during this period, and foster families have first pick at adoption should they want to keep them in their family! If you would like to register to be a foster with us, go to Foster Keeper, click on Foster, and search for One Of a Kind Pet Rescue.

Please also consider donating to help us provide care and supplies for not only the animals at our adoption center, but also the animals in our amazing foster homes!