Foster families selflessly volunteer their time, energy and home to provide a short-term space to keep more animals off of the streets and outside of kennels.

Brown County Humane Society Community Relations Manager Megan Gushwa told the Democrat that they have four categories for fosters, kitten, puppy, adult dog and adult cat.

“Some people are specific on what they foster so we have them broken down, but people are welcome to foster as many of those categories as they would like,” Gushwa said.

Kitten fosters are the most in demand at the shelter, said Gushwa. People who opt for kitten fostering can either foster litters of kittens or mother’s with kittens. The shelter tries to place animals under eight weeks old in foster care because they have weakened immune systems and would do better in a home compared to the shelter with other animals. The animals stay with the fosters until they are old enough for spaying or neutering between the ages of eight to 10 weeks.

“Fostering for any shelter is pretty much saving lives, not only including the animals they are fostering, but the ones in the shelter as well,” Gushwa said. “We have 37 kittens in foster currently in addition to 38 cats in the shelter. If those kittens were not with fosters, we would be making some very tough decisions that we do not want to have to make. We have been operating on capacity pretty much the entire year. Every kennel is full as well as community cat rooms. Fosters make an impact because they leave space in the shelters for new animals to be brought in off the street.”

This year the Brown County Humane Society has had 107 animals in foster homes, including 20 active homes that are predominantly focused on housing kittens. “Every foster we have is in use,” Gushwa said. “We always need more fosters, but we especially need more kitten and dog fosters even if they take the dogs for a week or two. We have dogs that have been here since March and somehow keep getting looked over. Not to mention we have animals on a waiting list to come into the shelter, we just need to free up space for them.”

Gushwa said potential fosters can fill out an application on the Brown County Humane Society’s website (www.bchumane.org/fostering/) and go through a screening process to become a foster home.

“Generally, the max for fosters to have animals is two months unless they have specific needs or are under eight weeks old,” Gushwa said. “When we send an animal, we try to be very open and honest about how long they will realistically be placed in the foster’s home. The biggest misconception is that someone is going to take an animal for a year and not be able to go on vacation or have a life. We try to work around schedules, which is why we are so open in the beginning about the timeline. If you have a vacation coming up, let us know and we can look at other options. Fostering is not as scary as it sounds.”

Foster and volunteer Red Nastoff got into fostering at the humane society around 15 years ago.

“They have two options, you can foster to adopt or foster to get them over the hump,” Nastoff said. “There are lots of opportunities for helping animals if you cannot adopt but want to have a buddy for a while. You can foster dogs, cats or pregnant animals so they can have their babies at your home and away from the stress of the shelter.”

Nastoff’s most recent foster was a dog named Sarah who she had been fostering since April. Sarah needed surgery and supporters helped raise money to pay for her veterinary bills.

“Recuperation was pretty extensive for Sarah including only three bathroom breaks per day on a leash and walking with back legs supported by holding her up with a sling,” Nastoff said. “When you foster it is such a bittersweet experience. You help the dog or cat become comfortable living life outside the shelter and you are able to access their personalities and habits to help figure out what kind of family they might be best suited for. But at the end of the fostering they get adopted and you may never see or hear anything about them ever.”

One of Nastoff’s friends from the Army helped support Sarah’s surgery and ultimately decided to adopt her. She and her husband left Arizona and drove to Brown County specifically to meet Sarah and take her home with them.