What is fostering?
Fostering is one of the most worthwhile things you can do in animal rescue. Fostering offers urgent cases and animals under threat, a safe ground or "half way house" where they can be taken out of immediate danger. Fostering can be easy and it can be hard; like everything in life, you get out what you put in.
Is fostering for you?
If you are extremely house-proud, fostering is most likely not for you. Foster dogs (and cats!) are relative unknowns. When they arrive in your home, no-one can say for sure what their exact temperament is, how they will react with the other animals in your house, if they are house-trained, if they have basic obedience commands etc. Each time you take in a foster dog, you start from scratch; you must get to know the dog, and it has to get to know you (and the rest of your family, if you have one!).
Feedback
Feedback to the person(s) who you foster for is of the utmost importance. Fostering gives a unique insight into an animals' temperament that will ultimately determine what the perfect "forever home" will be for the animal in question. Some dogs are good with children, others not. Some are good with cats, others not. Some are absolute bundles of energy that require three and four long walks per day, whereas others are pure couch potatoes; all this information is needed by the person re-homing the dog - it is vital, and every little thing counts - if you mis-inform the person who is in charge of re-homing the dog, it can lead to an incorrect placement. Therefore good, clear frank communication between the fosterer and the re-homing individual is of the utmost importance.
How long do you foster?
How long an animal is fostered for depends on a lot of factors. If you foster a dog going to Sweden it's usually 2-4 weeks.
The summary
At the end of the day, not a lot of people can "make it" as fosterers. It requires bull-headed persistence, a "can do" attitude, and a willingness to "allow" the foster animal to move on to its new "forever home". A "Failed fosterer" is someone who starts to foster and instead, keeps the foster animal; this is really great as yet another life is saved, but it does mean that there is now one less "half way" house for urgent cases. Its tough letting go, especially when you have bonded with an animal, brought it back from the brink, restored its faith in humans again. But that's the challenge of fostering - knowing your limits and keeping focused on the job.