Homeward bound – Fosters open their homes and alter their lives for shelter animals

Stacie Roberson didn’t set out to rescue a dog last August. She actually volunteered to photograph cats at the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Shelter for Petfinder’s adoption website.

Then she saw Lance, a beautiful German shepherd.

“Lance had given up,” she recalls. “German shepherds get so depressed in the shelter. They stop eating, then they catch illnesses.”

After a friend agreed to adopt the stray and the non-profit Friends of the Animals (FOTA) offered to pay for medical care, shelter management allowed Roberson to take the dog home.

As Hurricane Isaac blew through Baton Rouge, Lance’s condition became critical. Even without air conditioning or electricity, Cypress Lake Animal Hospital staff tried to save the dog, but pneumonia and kennel cough had already taken too great a toll on the two-year-old shepherd.

Rather than causing her to abandon animal rescue, the traumatic experience cemented the busy mom’s commitment to help her beloved breed. “I continued because it broke my heart that there were so many German shepherds in the shelter, and they weren’t getting the help they needed,” Roberson says. “They have a tremendous need to be around people. Without that interaction, they [deteriorate rapidly] in the shelter.”

She joined LSU law professor Maggie Thomas to create Red Stick German Shepherd Rescue. Now, 90% of German shepherds who arrive at the shelter survive; 40% higher than the survival rate of the general shelter population.

Fortunately, Roberson and Thomas are far from alone. Local animal welfare organizations specialize in rescuing and re-homing everything from purebred pups to mixed-breed mutts, guinea pigs to potbellied pigs, flying squirrels and rats to kittens and cats.

To increase the odds homeless pets will become great companions, these non-profits place the animals in foster homes rather than kennels or cages. The number of foster homes available determines how many animals the rescue group can help.

So—more than just bemoaning the city’s dismal euthanasia statistics—Baton Rougeans can actually participate and improve the city shelter’s survival rate. By one estimate, if one out of every 75 local families would foster or adopt a single shelter animal, the euthanasia rate could drop below 10%. That goal becomes even more attainable when foster programs are coupled with an aggressive spay/neuter program to reduce the number of unwanted animals born each year.

“People don’t realize how easy fostering can be,” says social worker John Nosacka, a FOTA board member. “You can go to the shelter, bring a dog to offsite adoption for two hours and bring her back. That’s where fostering begins—being a day foster.”

For families willing to make a greater commitment, rescue groups pay for veterinary care, obedience training, and sometimes food, litter, hay, habitats and other supplies. In exchange, fosters care for the animal as an indoor family pet, making sure the animal receives vet care and attends adoption events.

“Even if you can foster for a couple of months, it helps out tremendously, and you get so much back from it,” says paralegal Lisa A. Green, who fosters Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue bunnies and guinea pigs with her daughter, Tia Cason. “If I’m having a bad day, I pick up one of those little bunnies, and all is right with the world.”

In finding the right foster animal for each family, shelter and rescue foster coordinators consider breed or size preference, space, existing pets and activity level. Because so little is known about the animals’ backgrounds, foster families can return an animal who threatens family health, harmony or home.

“Sometimes you don’t know what you’re getting,” says Nosacka. ? “You can [usually] rehabilitate a dog physically as long as the ?mental part is still there. If the [dog’s] behavior and attitude are positive and fit in with the family, then the health stuff is a secondary ?concern.”

Shelter animals carry a stigma of being inferior to purebreds. Sometimes, people  assume the animals’ mere incarceration suggests they have committed an offense so awful they deserve to be locked up or euthanized.

However, most animals enter the shelter because humans have failed them. Perhaps an owner failed to choose the appropriate species or breed for the family’s lifestyle, to have pets spayed or neutered, to invest in a microchip so a lost pet can get home or to socialize pets so the family enjoys interacting with them.

“A lot of times, children may not handle [an Easter bunny] other than the day they get him,” explains Green. “And when he bites someone, Mom wants him out of the house. Then, [a foster] gets that rabbit, and he turns into the most lovable pet you’ve ever seen.”

That’s also the potential of a cute kitten who grows up to hiss defensively and shred the furniture, or a large, wild, adolescent puppy whom everybody wanted and nobody trained.

These mistreated and misunderstood animals blossom in foster care. “It’s so satisfying to rehabilitate and find homes for dogs,” says Nosacka. “They go from this frail and fretful creature into this nice, healthy, well-mannered animal ready to be part of someone’s home.”

Animals in foster care typically find homes faster than those in the shelter. Besides introducing the animal to the family’s social network of potential adopters, the foster home’s insight and experience give the animal a tremendous advantage.

For example, because there are so many at the shelter, black dogs frequently seem invisible to potential adopters.

“The most common questions are: Is she good with children, other dogs or cats? Is she housebroken?” says Paula Shaw, the city shelter’s programs and services manager. “If the dog has been living in a cage, we don’t know. So, the adopters walk past the dog.”

If a foster brings the same animal to an offsite adoption event, that black dog has a name, a personality, an advocate to intrigue potential adopters, and consequently, a much better chance of finding a new home.

In only two years, Nosacka and his wife Barbara have rehomed 15 dogs who otherwise might have been euthanized at the shelter.

While it is the ultimate goal, longtime volunteers admit adoption is also the hardest part of fostering. “They really become part of your family, and you want the best for them,” says Green. “With adoption, you never really know. We will hear from some adopters every month. Others just disappear off the radar.”

But for every animal placed, another is waiting. “My 5-year-old [son] now understands we’re doing this to save dogs, not keep the dogs,” says Roberson. “He gets really excited when one gets adopted. He’s all gung ho about going to the shelter find another one.”

For a list of local rescue organizations seeking fosters, click here.