Foster care is the temporary care of an animal in a foster home until the animal is ready to be reunited with its owner.

Animals from our Safe Shelter Program, to assist their guardians who are currently experiencing homelessness or require respite care. This is needed in the instance when their guardians access crisis accommodation, flees from a violent situation, is admitted to hospital etc and can’t look after their pet.

Foster care is required for varying lengths of time, depending on their guardian's circumstances and the foster carer’s situation. This can be for as little as two weeks up until a few months.

Animals going out to foster care need a safe, secure, loving, temporary home. Foster carers do not need to have any prior experience with fostering however you will need to meet the following criteria:

• Live in metro Victoria (our foster care program is only available for residents of metro Victoria)
• Submit a completed foster care application, accompanied by all the required supporting documents.
• Hold a valid driver’s licence or have access to reliable and safe transportation.
• Must be a minimum of 18 years of age.
• Can provide an environment that is safe and secure within your home (indoors). You must have the ability to isolate the foster animal(s) from family pets when required.
• If you have your own animals, your animals must be sociable and fully vaccinated, have been treated for fleas and worms, and are desexed.
• No children under the age of 7 in the household (for dog fosters).
• Able to commit to care for animals for 4-12 weeks, if required.

1. Fill in our application form.
2. We will review your application for suitability.
3. Once reviewed and if suitable, we will call you to discuss your application in more detail.
4. We will then arrange a time to come out and perform a property inspection to make sure that it is secure and appropriate.
5. If your property is suitable, the next step will be to apply for and submit all the required checks and permits (National Police Check, Landlord Permission, Photo ID).
6. You will be sent a foster carer agreement and handbook(s) to read through and sign.
7. We will be in touch when we have an animal that is suitable for your circumstances.

Our foster carers are responsible for providing a loving home that is always  secure and safe for their foster animal. They are responsible for transporting their foster animal to vet appointments. We expect our foster animals to be treated like family.

We will cover all vet expenses as long as you liaise with us first and use our preferred clinics (unless of course it’s an emergency). We will supply you with pet food and any necessary items such as beds, toys, training equipment etc. We are however greatly appreciative if our carers are willing to supply these themselves.

This depends a little on your circumstances, but most foster carers look after two or three young animals or one adult animal at a time.

For dog foster carers, we have the following requirements:

• No children under the age of 7 (due to health and safety regulations).
• House cannot be left empty for more than eight hours.
• Foster dogs must be allowed to sleep inside.
• Must have an area to separate the foster dog from own animals if required

You’ll want to consider how the animals in your household will adjust to having a foster pet. Some animals do very well with a temporary friend and can help socialise the foster animal. Other pets have a harder time with new animals being added to or leaving the family. You’re the best judge of your pet’s personality.

For the safety of your pets and the foster animal, it’s important to keep your pets up-to-date on vaccinations and parasite protection. Your pet must also be desexed. In many cases, the foster pet will need to be isolated from your own pets, either temporarily or throughout the foster period.

Cats and pocket pets can also be safely fostered in a home with children, however we are unable to place dogs into foster homes with children under the age of 7 years.

These circumstances should not prevent you from becoming a foster carer. However, please note that, as we always do our best to match animals with the best possible foster carer, not all animals can be fostered in all homes. We will discuss this with you further during your application process.

Veterinary costs are paid for by Pets Of The Homeless as part of our foster carer support service. You will need to contact us for approval if any problem arises.

As part of the foster application process, someone from our team will give you a call to assess your suitability. We will also come out and conduct a standard property check to ensure your home is safe and secure. This will also give us a chance to sit down and discuss the fostering process in more detail with you.

Please understand that we are a volunteer-powered organisation so we will try to get back to you ASAP. If you do not hear from us for a while, feel free to send us an email to foster@petsofthehomeless.org.au to follow up.