How to Welcome a Foster Pet Into Your Home
A foster parent’s guide
When you are fostering for the first time there are several things you need to prepare in advance to make your home a safe and comfortable environment for your foster pet.
Prepare your home
Try to see your home from the perspective of your foster dog, cat, guinea pig, rabbit. There are many things in a home that can be a risk for your foster pet especially if they are not used to living in a home. Look for and remove potential any harmful objects in the rooms your foster pet can access.
Checklist home
Kitchen, bathroom, utility room:
- keep trash cans covered or store them in a cabinet
- keep all food out of reach (boxes, cabinets, on cupboards, in a pantry, …)
- keep toilets closed
- close all spaces in which a small mammal could find a hideout (behind furniture, behind the dryer, …)
- keep all medication, chemicals, toxic cleaning products safe from your foster pet (it may be best to keep them in a locked cabinet)
Living room:
- place all poisonous plants out of reach of your foster pet
- pick up anything that could be dangerous
- put away everything which is of value to you/your family members but which could get destroyed by your foster pet make sure that your foster pet can’t gnaw on electrical cables (it may be best to put them in cable covers)
Garden/yard:
- make sure that your foster dog cannot escape from your garden/yard and that the fencing is sufficiently high if they are inclined to jump up.
Garage/shed:
- look at what you keep in your garage/shed and make sure that all dangerous products are kept locked away or at least out of reach for dogs and cats (anti-freeze, insecticides, rat poisons, turpentine, methylated spirit, …)
