OOHS Foster Care Program

         A short time in your home, a lifetime in your heart!

Are you able to open your heart and home to an animal in need, but are not ready to adopt for one reason or another? Now could be the perfect time to become a Foster Parent for Oregon Outback Humane Society (OOHS) and help an animal in our care.

As the only Humane Society in Lake County, OOHS takes in on average 120 animals every year. Without a shelter, the OOHS Foster Program is the number one way we help homeless, abandoned and misplaced animals in our community.  Foster Parents provide comfort to all of the animals in our care. Each time an animal is placed into a new home to be fostered, it provides us more space for another animal that needs OOHS

What is the Foster Program?
The Foster Program allows adoptable animals time to find their new home. There is no shelter in Lake County and without foster homes, these animals would have little hope of finding a forever home. Foster volunteers open up their homes to dogs and cats in need and help find them permanent adoptive homes.

What kind of animals need foster homes?
All kinds of adoptable dogs and cats! OOHS puts adoptable animals into foster homes to give them a second chance at finding a happy, forever home. We also need help fostering  mothers with litters of young ones and puppies or kittens too young to be adopted.

Who can be a foster parent?
Anyone with the time and energy to dedicate to caring for a cat or dog and the willingness to help it find a new home! Foster volunteers are caring, compassionate people who want to make a difference in an animal’s life. We ask that you have some familiarity with caring for animals in your home or the willingness to learn.  Fostering is not for everyone, but for those of us who do it, the rewards are priceless.

What are the requirements for fostering animals?
Foster caregivers need to be able to keep animals in their home (i.e. owning their own home or living in a pet-friendly rental). OOHS will provide routine preventative medical care including spay/neuter, vaccinations, FeLV/FIV tests, and dewormer. Foster parents are responsible for food, shelter, OOHS provides for medical care. Foster parents must be willing to help find the animal a new adoptive home (including meeting with potential adopters), and be able to release the foster pet when the new home is found. No foster animal can be release by the foster parent and anyone interested in a foster animal must go through the OOHS Adoption Process. If you know someone interested in your foster animal, they need to call OOHS at (877) 947-5009 or go to the website and read the Adoption Info. A fostered animal can be returned if it is not working out. Please give OOHS 48 hours to make arrangements for a new foster home placement.

What happens during the foster process?
When there is a dog or cat that needs foster care, the Foster Care Program Manager will contact you. If you are able to foster at that time, arrangement will be made to bring it home and get settled in. Foster animals’ pictures are posted on the OOHS website. You will need to occasionally bring you foster pet to Adoption Events and make them available for off site adoptions as well.  You can also advertise your foster pet in newspapers, on Craigslist, or anywhere you choose! When a potential adopter is interested, you will have them contact OOHS to start the Adoption process.

How do I become a foster parent?
Contact Andrea Letham, Volunteer and Foster Care Program Manager, at 877-947-5009 (ext. 6), info@oregonoutbackhumane.org, for an application. After filling out the application, an OOHS representative will go over the Foster Care Program with you. We want to make sure you have all of your questions answered before you get started.

Foster Care Application

Foster Care Agreement   

Thoughts from current OOHS Foster Homes

"I never thought I could do it. I just knew that I would not be able to let any of them go. But as I watch each of them come into our home and blossom, then watch as they find a family that has been waiting for them to come along, I know being a Foster Parent is the best way I can help. Some are harder to see go than others, and then there are the ones, actually the one - my boy Sydney-  that I know should have been my dog, but in the end they end up right where they need to be not necessarily where I need them to be!. Every day is an adventure, sometimes challenging, sometimes easy but always rewarding. There is no better way to help these animals. I have received much more from each of them than I have ever given.  You would be amazed at what you can do." ~ Martina