Posted on October 12, 2018 by Amanda Coats
What is it like to foster? I could try to explain it in ten words or less, but I fear 100 wouldn’t even do. People adopt pets because their life is that much better when they do.
We can’t live without animals in our lives on some level. Our pets throw us into an emotional roller coaster that makes us better humans for the wear. Fostering is a lot like that, a little condensed. We take in “no one’s pets” and make them our own, even if only for a little while. After all, they are someone’s pets……. They all are, or they stay with me.
From the day they come into my home (day one we call it,) until they pass, they will always have a place here, for any reason. That’s the promise you make when you decide to help them. Give them food, shelter, heal their heart, and mend what’s broken, these are the ties that bind us together.
When I get a call that there is a sick cat outside, I never worry about how sick or hurt they are, or who did what to them. I never care about how they got this way. The only thing I pray for is time. I pray that I have enough time to heal what’s broken. They are resilient and they can forgive us only if we show them the way.
When they are better, and they learn to be house cats and kittens again. I need to send them on their way. It is never a question of “if I can adopt them out,” I simply must. When I adopt out one, I save two lives. That one, and the room I make for another. I call it their accidental second chance at life. It is accidental because they never should have ever needed it, yet here we are.
I always get asked the same question over and over……. “How could you do all this? I could never let them go.” I always answer the same way…. If it’s not me, not you, then who will? A rescue circle’s beginning and end are never founded, so are all rescues just this well rounded.
Photos by Amanda.
Amanda Coats
Note from Elisa: This article is part of the Readers Forum series. If you have a story you’d like to tell about fostering cats or your work in cat rescue, please PM me on Facebook or email it to me at elisablacktaylor@gmail.com. Include a few photos. You’ll be given credit as the writer.
That is an excellent read, totally nails it on fostering and the integrity of the fosterer.
Foster as ‘love rehab’ beautiful.
Amanda Coats is one of the most sincere rescuers that I have ever met. Her writings deserve to be in books and read by everyone. Some make you smile some make you laugh and others make you break down and cry. Her strength and stamina are unmatched. Her love for animals is unparalleled, cats, dogs and yes raccoons! I admire and thank her for all the work that she does.
Thank you! There is hope for all animals. If we work together for change.
Awww thank you!