When you provide a foster home to an animal from Best Friends or a local shelter, you become part of a lifesaving team working to create a bright, healthy, and safe future for homeless dogs and cats around the country.
A shelter can be a noisy and stressful place, especially for shy and frightened animals. By providing a loving, quiet place for pets to learn and grow, you’re helping to alleviate the burden for a local shelter.
When you foster a pet, you’re helping to save even more lives by freeing up space in shelters for additional animals. So what are you waiting for? Snuggles, silliness, fun, and friendship await!
Share your home with adorable bundles of love and fuzz
What to expect when you foster a pet
Fostering a pet is an easy, direct, and short-term way to make a lifetime of difference. It simply means temporarily opening your home to pets in need and giving them love and care while they wait to be adopted.
Foster Volunteer Tasks
Typical responsibilities in the day of a pet foster caregiver include feeding, caring for, and socializing the pet (or pets) you’re fostering.
Time Commitment
Fostering a pet is a flexible way to help make a difference in the lives of pets because you can foster a dog or cat for just a night or two — or for several weeks — depending on what works best for your lifestyle and schedule.
Volunteer Requirements
Best Friends (and some shelters) can provide everything you need, including food, supplies, support, and veterinary care; you’ll just need to provide the love.
Foster with Best Friends
Foster with Best Friends Programs and Partnerships
No-Kill Los Angeles (NKLA) • No-Kill Utah (NKUT) • Brownsville, Texas • Navajo Nation • Rio Grande Valley, Texas
Best Friends partners with animal shelters around the country to save more lives. Not near one of our locations or programs? Foster for a Best Friends Network Partner in your community.
New to fostering?
Foster kittens are a great way to get started. Give us your email, and we’ll get you everything you need to know.
Get Started With Fostering
Still have questions? More about fostering »
Lifesaving tales of love and resilience
Meet a few of the amazing animals who've found healing and happiness because of caring foster volunteers.
More ways you can help the animals
As thousands of animals looking for families of their very own remain in shelters around the country, one of the most valuable gifts you can give them is your time.
Volunteer from home
From administrative and marketing roles to events and fostering, we have lifesaving volunteer opportunities suited for you and your interests.
See remote opportunities
Volunteer at our animal sanctuary
Stroll with a dog, spruce up a rabbit run, or simply keep a shy cat company. There are plenty of ways to make a difference at our animal sanctuary.
See sanctuary opportunities
Volunteer in your community
There are countless opportunities to help save the lives of homeless pets, no matter where you live in the United States.
See opportunities near me
