Questions to ask at foster home check

[alessandrae83]

Hi,

We have had a long chat and want to foster rather than adopt at the moment. We have spoken to a cat rescue and they are pleased so far with what we have told them and have arranged a homecheck for Tuesday. What questions should I be asking and what may I not have thought of that I should think about?

We have no other pets and two respectful children age 9 and 5. We know fosters are not allowed out. We don't have a spare room so not sure if that will be an issue but other than that fingers crossed for us.

Ask which vet they use, you will make fairly frequent trips there, in my experience and if it’s not convenient it can be irritating. Do they supply food and litter, if so how do you get it? Are there regular fosterer meetings- where and when? Will you be expected to do other things such as help at fundraising events? Are there rehoming days when the cats are shown in pens? What training do you need to do?

I’m sure you will be told all these things but they’re all things that can affect how easy the fostering experience is. Is it CP? If you don’t have your own cat it’s fine not to have a special cat room, my fosters had the run of the house. Fostering is really rewarding, you will love it.

I'm aware of the vets and if I couldn't get to them then they have volunteer drivers who could help me :) they can also provide food and litter but I think I would pay for that myself. It's not cp, it's a local rescue to me. Independent. I'm very excited. I hope my youngest isn't allergic to cats as he hasn't been around them! They have a photographer come to foster carers houses to do a shoot to promote the cats on the website and social media pages :)

Is it ok to have preferences? I don't mind but DH would prefer to foster individuals rather than pairs

You could ask about holidays - for example at the charity where I volunteer we try to cover shorter breaks by another volunteer "cat sitting" the foster cat in the foster home, but I know other charities who will move the cat to another fosterer if the original one goes on holiday.

If you don't have a spare room, you will probably need to have a discussion about door and window safety and how to prevent escapes.

I’ve never been able to say no to taking any cat but you can say that you prefer singles I’m sure. The stories are always so sad that I’ve only said no if I have holiday planned (that’s another question you should ask, what happens if you are away). Most I’ve had is three from the same multi-cat home and they were fine. Once you get into the swing of it DH will come round, I’m sure.

Escape prevention is important, lucky I have a porch type arrangement on both back and front doors. It is hard in summer not being able to throw doors and windows open.

Thank you for answering :)

And yeah, the room we will mainly have cats in will be shut when we leave the house and that still gives them access to the kitchen also for food and water, however our lounge that will be the main room we have them in has double doors leading to the back yard, so will need to find a way to not allow them to escape in summer as I don't want to lock them in a small kitchen whilst we are in the back yard as it's not fair.

I think most charities will let you have a preference but sometimes it's harder to match people with a suitable foster cat if they have very specific preferences as many of the cats that come to a rescue already have special needs... (for example we send a lot of shy and aggressive cats to fosterers as they tend to do better in a home environment than in a pen; similarly cats that are likely to be with us for a while such as senior cats and any with health problems, and of course nursing mum cats and their kittens).

I personally would take any of them. DH is only concerned about the size of our house and needing more litter trays and where to put it all otherwise he is happy to take any

We passed! Possibly going to look after an older boy with FIV but waiting to hear. No idea when we will get our first one