Why did you take on TWENTY SIX foster cats?! Let me get the details
right... in a normal rescue/foster relationship, you would get a call from the
rescue group, asking you to please foster a cat. You would pick the cat up from
the shelter, and a foster plan would be formed at that time. You and the rescue
groups' foster liaison would discuss this cats specific needs, and develop a
general timeline that you suspect it would take the foster cat to meet these
rehabilitation goals. For instance, if you are taking on a young kitten, a good
foster timeline goal would be to keep the kitten until it is old enough to be
altered and adopted out. OR, if you are fostering a cat with emotional problems,
you would expect to need to socialize the cat and desensitize it to it's
problems, a good timeline goal for that would be 3 to 6 months. You would keep
the cat until it reaches it's foster goal, and then you would return it to the
rescue when it's rehabilitated and ready for adoption. Sometimes, a rescue might
use fosterhomes as temporary shelters or triages in emergency situations, if
they have more cats in their program than they have cages for at their shelter.
In this case, you would take a cat to the shelter as the shelter adopts out one
already there. Usually, the rescue/shelter would get the basic vet
care (altering, vaccines, deworming, etc) done BEFORE the cat goes into foster
care. Sometimes, the rescue arranges the appointments, and the foster just takes
the cat in to it's scheduled vet appointments, but the rescue pays for the
visit(s). Is this the type of arrangement you have with the rescue group you
foster for? Typically, in a foster arrangement, all vet care needed would be
approved and arranged by the rescue, NOT by the foster. Expenses beyond what the
rescue can recover via an adoption fee would not be covered by the rescue group,
the cat would generally be euthansied in many rescue groups, in others, special
fundraising benefits would need to be scheduled in advance of the vet
appointment to pay for the expenses, in other (no kill) rescues, the cat may be
provided with the vet care, and they would try to scramble up the funds after
the fact, but that would only be able to be done IF they found a vet willing to
work on credit (very rare). If a foster took it upon themselves to pay for vet
care up and above the general exam, deworming, altering, and vaccines provided
to all rescued animals, then it would NOT be the responsibility of the rescue to
pay for it, as it is OPTIONAL CARE the foster has CHOSEN to provide outside of
the rescue's guidelines. That is typical of the foster/rescue relationship. Your
situation may be different. I suggest you review the foster agreement
and/or contract you signed when you agreed to provide foster care for animals
with that rescue. Beyond that, all I can recommend is that you call the rescue
and arrange to turn some of the cats back in to the rescue. Tell them you are
overwhelmed and need to return some of the cats ASAP. The rescue should be able
to scramble and arrange alternative fosterhomes for the cats if they cannot
physically accept them back into their shelter at this time (due to
overcrowding).
Phaewryn Please adopt a cat from Little Cheetah Cat Rescue!!! http://ucat.us/adopt.html
Low cost Spay&Neuter services in VT, and Emergency Financial Assistance for cat owners: http://ucat.us/VermontLowCost.html Special Needs Cat Resources: http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html The Sofa Poem: http://ucat.us/sofapoem.html Find us on PETFINDER! http://petfinder.com/shelters/VT44.html |
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