By Hannah Lester
hlester@opelikaobserver.com
The Lee County Humane Society is asking people to foster pets next weekend for a “Slumber Paw-ty Extravaganza” so the shelter can clean up.
“The Slumber Paw-ty Extravaganza is going to be Lee County’s largest fostering event ever,” said Bailey Ray, foster coordinator at LCHS. “We are hoping to get all pets currently housed in the shelter into foster homes from Friday, March 26 until at least Sunday, March 28 so our staff can focus two whole days to cleaning every inch of our shelter.”
This is the first year the shelter has considered an event like this, Ray said, but the LCHS would like to make this twice-annual.
“Our director approached me in February about the idea of having a “spring cleaning” style event to perform a deep cleaning of the shelter and what this would entail,” Ray said. “We figured this would require every pet to find temporary placement in a foster home over one weekend, so we brainstormed ideas on how to get our community involved which led us to the Slumber Paw-ty idea.”
Although this is the first “Slumber Paw-ty,” animals are available for fostering on weekends already.
“With our existing Weekend Warriors foster program where we allow fosters to take a pet from Friday through Sunday,” Ray said, “We knew fostering over a weekend is much more feasible for most people rather than a week or 2-week foster period.”
While pets are exploring their temporary weekend homes, the shelter will be deep cleaning, Ray said.
“Our goal is to scrub this entire building from top to bottom, and everywhere in between, to make it as great as possible for the pets we serve. We also have not experienced a time with zero pets in the building, so this is the best time for us to remove larger kennels to wash outside which is something we usually cannot do since pets are occupying them.
We are also starting to see an increase in stray intakes as summer draws near, so this may be the last time we see less than 100 pets in our care until October or later.”
Ray said she believes fostering is a gift, not just for the human, but the pet.
“By taking the pet into your home until they find a permanent placement, you are not only helping them decompress from their stay at the shelter, but you’re also giving the shelter staff valuable information about how this pet behaves in a home,” she said.
Don’t worry about the supplies necessary for fostering if you don’t already have pets at home, the humane society provides what your new friend will need.
“I think that fostering can be beneficial to people looking to see if they are prepared to adopt,” Ray said. “Even if you don’t adopt your first foster pet, you’re still helping them find a loving home by taking them into foster care.”
Anyone interested in fostering is asked to apply online first to make sure all pets will be safe (leecountyhumane.org/foster.) Interested foster parents for cats and dogs will then need to fill out the “Slumber Paw-ty” form (https://forms.gle/zooaDhxDdqUC7CSKA.)
There are two dogs up for adoption in the humane society who have been looking for homes since July, Rue (LCHS-A-4533) and Dyson (LCHS-A-5671).
Looking for a kitten? Ray said that Tally (LCHS-A-6734) is in search of a home.
“Tally has FIV which is feline immunodeficiency virus, but she’s still PAWsitively adoptable,” she said. “All of these pets will be needing foster homes for our Slumber Paw-ty plus many more.”