Home for the Holidays
Foster a homeless animal in need this holiday season! Dogs and cats may not know what Christmas is exactly, but they do feel the undeniable warmth and love of a real home. Even a short-term vacation from the shelter enriches their lives beyond belief and has proven to make them better candidates for adoption.
If you don't require any convincing and want to know how to get started right away, contact the Little Rock Animal Village. If you're interested in fostering kittens in particular, contact Debbie Heller via email at debbie.jonunderhill@comcast.net, or by phone at (501) 590-9967.
Fostering a homeless cat or dog has obvious benefits for the animal, but there are countless benefits for the foster family as well! For one, this is a no-strings-attached chance to enjoy a pet without long-term commitment. Home for the Holidays is not an open-ended foster commitment; we are simply asking that you give a shelter animal the gift of a loving home over the holidays. If you’re not sure that a pet would suit your lifestyle, or your occupation precludes you from having a pet most of the time because you travel often for work, fostering on a short-term basis when you can is a guilt-free way to get your furbaby fix. This is also a good opportunity to evaluate whether a pet would fit into your life, as well as find out exactly what kind of pet suits you and your home best. If you’re worried that it would be too hard to return your foster furbaby at the end of the program, please know that the benefits of simply spending time in your home for a few weeks are absolutely priceless to them and will actually help them a great deal when it comes to finding a forever home.
Foster homes provide benefits for animals in need far beyond being a temporary vacation from shelter life. Pets who have spent time in a foster home have a much higher chance of being adopted for two primary reasons. First, foster homes help pets get adopted thanks to the invaluable information that fosters can provide to potential adopters. You’ll be able to tell potential adopters all about your foster furbaby’s personality, their habits, their likes and dislikes… A foster parent is the best reference available for a pet in need of a forever home. Shelter staff can tell potential adopters some of these things, and the staff at the Little Rock Animal Village is particularly knowledgeable about the pets in their care and they are always more than happy to answer any and all questions, but they also work with hundreds of animals each day and, thus, their knowledge about any one particular animal might be limited. Secondly, foster parents can work with pets on obedience and manners and provide much needed socialization, which helps prepare them for home life. Trust us, you don’t have to be Cesar Milan to teach a dog to sit, or Jackson Galaxy to train a cat to use a litter box.
Basically, you don’t have to be an animal expert to give one a home for a little while and make a huge difference in his or her life. With this foster program, we’re simply asking for fosters throughout the month of December. If you’d like to continue fostering beyond the end of the year, you would of course be more than welcome to and can make those arrangements with the Animal Village. If you’d like to participate in Home for the Holidays and foster an animal for any length of time during December, please contact the Little Rock Animal Village. This holiday season, consider giving a pet in need a “Home for the Holidays.” You can, and will, make a difference.
If you're interested in fostering kittens in particular, contact Debbie Heller via email at debbie.jonunderhill@comcast.net, or by phone at (501) 590-9967.
