Even though the Humane Society’s official Be Kind to Animals week has ended, around here on the Pets blog the theme’s always Be Kind to Animals. In that spirit, I want to carry on a thread I started in my last article: what if you want pets, but aren’t able to have them?
Let’s say you or a family member is allergic, or you don’t have the space, money, or time at the moment. If you’re an animal lover who doesn’t have any animals to love, I have one word for you: volunteer.
Look up your local shelter or rescue. They’re sure to have several options through which you can interact with pets. Shelters often need volunteers to socialize the animals, “socialize” a fancy way of saying come and play with them.
Most of the animals in shelters came from the street and have had little to no interaction with humans. They need people to give them love and attention so they’ll learn how to properly behave around people, thus making them more viable for adoption.
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The kitties in the shelter would love for you to come and spend time with them
Smaller rescues, which might not have their own buildings, sometimes have a similar need. I volunteer for my county’s animal rescue, and one of the things I do is look after the cats they have placed in Petco.
The store has a few cubicles in the front containing cats belonging to the rescue, and they need volunteers to come in twice a day to look after the kitties’ food, litter, and most importantly, playing and social needs. Many chain pet stores have similar deals with local rescues.
If the shelter or rescue you contact doesn’t need socializing volunteers, they may need others for adoption events. Many shelters/rescues host special adoption events featuring a number of their available animals, and volunteers are frequently needed to help handle the animals.
Depending on why you can’t have a pet, shelters and rescues may have another option for you: fostering. Fosters take homeless dogs and/or cats into their homes until the time of the pet’s adoption. If you can’t have a pet due to monetary or time reasons, fostering is a possibility.
Shelters pay for the food and medical costs incurred by the fostered pet. Also, fosters aren’t always expected to spend as much time with the pet as it might normally need.
My puppy lived with a foster mom until we adopted her, and the foster mom lived on her own and had to work full time. She wasn’t able to give a 3-month-old puppy all the time it would need from its permanent owners, but having the puppy in a real home as opposed to a cage at a shelter was still a preferable alternative.
Fostering works as a great option for those who might not have the full time or money to spend on a pet; the shelter takes care of the latter, and because the fostering situation is temporary, the former does not matter as much.
If the fostering doesn’t work out, the shelter takes back the pet and finds it a new situation. Because fosters don’t commit to care for the animals for life, they don’t carry the full responsibility of sticking with the pet when things get tough.
Just because you’re not in the right situation for a permanent pet does not mean there aren’t still several ways you can interact with animals. Volunteer and you’ll get to spend time with the animals you love, giving back a little to them in return.
Related Articles:
How to Adopt a Pet Without Adopting the Responsibility
Holiday Help for Animal Shelters
What Does Your Local Humane Society or Shelter Need?
Are Adoption Rules too Strict?
*(This image by My_Boy_Dodger is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
