Fostering requirements
There are many ways that you can add your talents to the work we do with Homeward Bound.
We have a continual need for foster homes as the availability of those homes is what dictates the number of dogs we are able to bring into our program. The more foster homes we have available, the more dogs we can keep out of shelters and in our care until they find their forever home.
Foster homes serve a number of functions.
Through our foster volunteers, we are able to learn about our dogs, who they are, and what they need in a home situation. This allows us to find just the right home for each dog, which greatly enhances the chance that they will remain with their new families throughout the rest of their lives.
Foster homes work at identifying problem areas in their charges and may start working with their fosters at fixing them (such as providing reassurance and security to a dog who has been frightened in its prior living situation or shelter experience). Some of the puppies need to learn basic housebreaking and how to walk on a leash. Foster homes work at socializing their dogs, exposing them to as many different people and situations as possible to assess temperament. Most of all, our foster homes provide a loving and safe environment for these dogs until we can find their forever homes.
However, there are many other things that we need help with to keep our group going. We often need help transporting dogs from shelters to foster homes or to vet appointments. Many of our dogs come from long distances, where we will need to meet a transport on a weekend to get them here. Sometimes that will require more than one vehicle, and we could certainly use help there.
We need help at our adoption clinics, both in working with the dogs and with applicants. Volunteers can help at all phases of the adoption process, including doing the home visits.
Volunteers are needed for our training classes and to assist us in fundraising and special events. As volunteers are trained, some may be asked to visit shelters in their areas to evaluate dogs that may be coming into the program.
We also need people to assist in maintaining the web page as well as other internet sites (such as maintaining the Petfinder page and/or finding other search engines for our group). The more people who want to be involved, only increases the amount of work we can do.
If you are interested in becoming a Homeward Bound Foster Home, please click here. You must be over the age of 18 and have your own residence to be a Foster Home.
If you are interested in volunteering for Homeward Bound in some other capacity, please click here .
Thank you for your interest in Homeward Bound and more importantly. thank you for helping the dogs find their forever homes.
Why We Foster
Fostering can be a bit of work, but the rewards are amazing. Some have been 8 week old puppies, others adults, some are only with us a week and some are here longer, but each one wiggles their way into your heart in their own special way.
We started fostering to pay forward the happiness Homeward Bound gave us when we adopted our Cooper 3 years ago. It’s hard to imagine that if someone hadn’t opened their heart and home to foster Cooper, that the best dog in the world wouldn’t have had a life. Fostering is a wonderful opportunity to do the same for someone else. When we see our foster leave with a smiling family, maybe chasing a laughing child across the parking lot on their way to a new home, it pulls our heart strings. We are often sad to see them go, but happy knowing that we have been a stepping stone to a great new life for them. And then we take the next one in and do it all over again!!!
Herbie and Doc are our 9th and 10th fosters. Doc is dynamo of energy and personality in a little 16 pound package and definitely likes having another dog to run and play with. He will exhaust himself and then come roll on his back on your lap for a belly rub and crash out! Herbie was left alone in an abandoned house for the first 6 months of her life and just brought food and water. She now knows that she can be loved and returns that affection enthusiastically with lots of kisses and lap warming. She follows me from room to room and waits outside a closed door for me. She has learned to play with the other dogs, and is best friends with our other foster Doc and they run circles through the yard with Cooper.
Rutkowski Family Fosters
Herbie and Doc are our 9th and 10th fosters. Doc is dynamo of energy and personality in a little 16 pound package and definitely likes having another dog to run and play with. He will exhaust himself and then come roll on his back on your lap for a belly rub and crash out! Herbie was left alone in an abandoned house for the first 6 months of her life and just brought food and water. She now knows that she can be loved and returns that affection enthusiastically with lots of kisses and lap warming. She follows me from room to room and waits outside a closed door for me. She has learned to play with the other dogs, and is best friends with our other foster Doc and they run circles through the yard with Cooper.
It always makes us smile.
I adopted my sweet girl, Kobi, from Homeward Bound in 2008. A year later, I received an email asking if I would like to volunteer with the organization, and I decided to give it a try. Over 60 foster dogs later, I am still at it and can’t imagine not doing this. Knowing there are so many homeless, neglected, and abused dogs around breaks my heart, and the little bit that I can contribute to correcting this problem keeps me going. Fostering isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always fun, but the satisfaction of placing a dog in what I think is the perfect home is indescribable. Fosters get paid in sloppy kisses and warm furry hugs, as we are all volunteers, and when someone tells me they couldn’t do what I do, I know that isn’t true.
Yes, foster moms and dads may be a special kind of crazy, but it isn’t all that different from being a parent. When those big, soft eyes look at you and you receive a goofy dog smile that tells you they think you are the greatest.. Well, who can resist that?
Certainly not me. So why do I foster? As I said, I have over 60 reasons to date and I’m still going strong.
My name is Mary Ann, and I have been a doggie foster mom for 6 years. I was very nervous in the beginning, as I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into, but fostering has opened up a whole new world to me. I knew there were too many dogs in shelters and too many were being euthanized (all my dogs came from shelters), but I didn’t really get involved besides donating to animal causes. I had to stop working due to a disability, and I found myself without an identity. I didn’t realize how much purpose my job gave me until it was gone. Fostering has given me a new identity.
I started my foster career with Homeward Bound slowly, and as I learned more, I got involved more. I was given everything I needed to foster a dog, including the ability to see a vet that was convenient for me when my foster dogs needed medical care.
Looking back, I thought I was a pretty savvy dog owner…But I knew nothing compared to what I know now. Since I am home all the time, I began taking more difficult dogs; some with behavior issues, advanced medical needs, and senior dogs. I had no idea of the rewards that were to come from that. It is amazing to watch a dog blossom before your eyes, see the effects that love and stability can have on a creature, to be a part of the healing, and a bridge to a forever home.
It is really hard to give up a foster dog, and sometimes I cry because I want to keep them. I tell myself that there are more dogs out there that need me. Other volunteers help me through this….we all know that feeling. I have met so many great people and made new friends, all because of fostering.
Foster parents really do come from all walks of life and every profession. In our group, we have doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, accountants, IT people, students, missionaries, and even a veterinarian!
Helping dogs learn to trust again, teaching them to live in a family, watching them learn from my dogs, and seeing that spark of life come back in their eyes, and knowing that I can make a difference as one person fostering one dog at a time have all made me a better person. It doesn’t seem like a lot at first, but when I add up 10-15 dogs a year over many years, that is a lot of saved lives! I never saw the big picture in the beginning, and never kept an exact count of how many dogs I’ve saved. Yes, I say “I’ve saved” because I know that even though I don’t personally pick the dogs, without my effort, a lot of dogs would never have made it out alive. That is a feeling I can’t even describe. And it all started with just one dog.