Foster
Why foster for the Routt County Humane Society?
- Fostering is an excellent way to give back to local animals and help RCHS improve the life of the animals in our care.
- When fostering an animal for the RCHS, you help the animal get accustomed to living in a home environment.
- Fostering is an enormous help for animals that need extra care, or for mothers and kittens or puppies.
- Fostering provides a temporary home for animals that are overwhelmed by the change in environment when coming to a humane society.
- Fostering dogs helps them get the extra training that humane society staff may not be able to give each day, so they can become better members of society.
Our most frequent feline need for fosters is orphan or stray kittens and kittens with mothers. Our feline fosters need to be comfortable with giving medications, taking temperatures, weighing kittens daily, possibly staying up throughout the night to care for a kitten, providing structure, socialization, and any extra needed care as well as providing transportation to and from the Humane Society for any vet visits or vaccinations needed.
Kitten fosters should be prepared to foster the kittens in their care until the kittens weigh 2 pounds, around 8 or 9 weeks old. If you are only able to foster for more than a couple weeks please discuss your available time frame with the foster coordinator.
Our most frequent canine foster needs are dogs that need more medical care, attention, and training then we are able to give on a daily basis. Our canine fosters need to be comfortable with giving medications, taking temperatures, training, providing structure, socialization, and any extra needed care as well as providing transportation to and from the Humane Society for any vet visits or vaccinations needed.
Some dogs will require daily training or a round of medication before they will be made available for adoption. Please discuss the best dog for you with the foster coordinator. If a dog is proposed for you to foster that you are not comfortable with please let us know. We will always try to place dogs based on best fitting lifestyle, personality and availability.
We are currently only accepting fosters who are located in Steamboat, Steamboat 2 or are within 10-15 minutes from the shelter. If you are outside our current foster service area, please apply to be a volunteer. While it is quite different from fostering, volunteering helps the animals located directly in the shelter to get the enrichment and socialization needed.
