BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — Care for community pets this holiday season. CARE Humane Society is in need of holiday fosters, and even two days of watching an animal will help.
“It’s the dogs that really need to be out — they’re in their kennels for 20 hours a day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, because [the workers] obviously need to be with our family,” said CARE Humane Society Foster Coordinator Clara Hopkin. “It’d be really beneficial and really, really great for them if they got to spend their Christmas in a home.”
Hopkin said with many regular fosters traveling out of town, and many of the university students who normally watch pets home for winter break — CARE is in need of at least 20 open homes to watch animals this holiday season.
“A minimum of two days is even beneficial for a dog,” she said. “For cats, we prefer not to do shorter than, I would say, five days [of fostering], just because it can be a little stressful [for them]. And then for puppies, when changing their environments and exposing them to other diseases and contagious illnesses — their immune systems are so weak, so we prefer them to stay for a minimum of five days to a week — 14 days is even better. But for adult dogs, they do doggie days all the time — it’s so beneficial — and that’s just for a few hours. Even two days in foster care could just change their whole little lives.”
To apply to be a foster this holiday season, Hopkin said to visit www.carehumane.org/foster and fill out an application — to give pets in need some extra love and attention for Christmas.
“You can either fill out the cat or dog foster application, or you can do both,” she said. “And then all you have to do after you do that is email me at Foster@carehumane.org, and then just tell me what you’re looking for, the temperament you can handle, if you have kids, cats, other dogs, small dogs, unaltered dogs, all of that. We test all of our dogs with cats and other dogs. We have several that do well with children, even young newborn children. There’s not a lot of those, but we do have a handful of those. So we’ll just match you with what works best with your family. It’s very simple, and then we offer all the supplies and vet care, so there’s no cost in fostering at all. We just need the home.”
For those interested in fostering and homing a pet in need, Hopkin said she wants to encourage locals to take the step and help CARE Humane Society though inviting in a furry friend.
“We really need the community of Lee County to step up and help us during this difficult time,” she said. “We did really great during Thanksgiving, thank God, and we really need that for December as well… We wouldn’t be what we are today without the foster program.”
