FIND THE PURR-FECT WAY TO HELP
You can adopt an animal but providing a forever home isn’t the only way to help. Right now, the SPCA New Plymouth Centre needs more foster homes. We sat down and chatted with the centre manager to find out the paw-sibilities.
This year 272 animals have already been adopted from the SPCA New Plymouth Centre. That’s about 2 animals finding a forever home every single day.
Last year, the centre rehomed 681 animals - from puppies to miniature horses, and everything in between. Centre Manager Katrina Bowditch says this year they’ve also had an extra long kitten season. Volunteer foster parents help ease the burden on the centre by providing a temporary home for the kittens, she says.
“I’ve got a really wonderful team here - we’re all just a little bit burnt out at the moment. Most fosterers can have them for a month. I mean, we’re even grateful if someone takes them for a week, because that just reduces the workload on the centre.” She says they get a lot of timid kittens so being in a foster family first helps them get adopted. “When they’re fostered the animals are in a home where they can be socialised and spend some time in a family atmosphere so that when they go out for adoption they’re ready for their new homes.”
The transformation is incredible to witness and really fulfilling for the foster family. “When I pick them up they’re big chunky, porky-looking kittens which they weren’t when they first went there,” she says. “They’ve turned them from these tiny, little, timid things into kittens that are ready to be adopted to their forever homes. They’ve helped give them that second chance.” She says it can be hard on foster parents to say goodbye. “You get the ones that will foster a litter of kittens, and they bring them back to the centre and say. ‘Oh, I’m actually going to adopt that one’. So we call that foster fail.”
HOW TO START FOSTERING KITTENS
1. Fill out the SPCA application form.
2. Complete a quick follow-up phone interview with our foster team.
3. Attend an information session at our centre.
4 Pick up your foster kittens and required supplies.
5. We’ll give you food, bedding, toys, medicine and anything else it needs – some animals may also need a follow-up vet appointment.
6. Give your foster kittens your love, care and patience, and introduce them to a real home life experience, rules and boundaries.
7. Return the animal back to the SPCA Centre... or you can adopt!