What it means to foster

By opening up your heart and home to a foster dog, you are removing them from the shelter environment and allowing them to flourish while they prepare to meet their future families.

According to Petco Love, studies show that if just 2% of pet-owning households fostered just one pet a year, we could eliminate unnecessary euthanasia in shelters tomorrow. At Muddy Paws Rescue, we believe the answer to saving millions of dogs each year is by giving them a home to live in until their “gotcha day” comes.

As a foster-based dog rescue, our goal is to get dogs out of shelters, but our hope is that one day we won’t have to! We imagine a world where shelters are empty because each pet has a loving home. Until that vision becomes a reality, we will continue working with our community and making fostering and adopting accessible to all. This allows us to save thousands of puppies and dogs each year with the help of our incredible Muddy Paws Pack.

Fostering a dog in need is one of the most rewarding experiences out there, but it can also come with a lot of questions. Whether you’re wondering where the dogs are from or looking for tips on crate training, we’re here to answer any questions you may have! Welcome to Fostering 101.

The Difference between a Shelter and a Foster-based Rescue

Shelters and foster-based rescues are just two sides of the same lifesaving coin. Shelters house adoptable pets in a centralized location where they receive care and enrichment before they are adopted. Foster-based rescues work with shelters and other sources to take in homeless pets and place them with fosters before they are adopted. Since shelters tend to be very stressful for the pets living in them, placing a pet in foster care allows them to relax in a home environment and show their true personality so that adopters have a better idea of what their pet will be like when they bring them home. While some foster-based rescues also operate a brick-and-mortar shelter locations, Muddy Paws does not. Our Pack HQ is only used as a home-base for our operations and as a central station for fosters and staff to coordinate.

Working with Shelters

What are popularly referred to as “kill shelters” are actually open-intake shelters. These shelters have a contract, usually with the city or municipality they operate in, to take in every animal that is brought to them. Since shelters have finite space and resources, this can place an enormous strain on their capacity to care for the animals living there, so they rely on the help of donors, adopters, fosters, and rescues to help save every life they can. At Muddy Paws, we are proud to provide this crucial support to our open-intake shelter partners and encourage our Pack members to do the same!

Our Dogs In Need

At Muddy Paws, our foster dogs come from our local partners, ACC or ASPCA, or from our shelter partners in Kentucky or Georgia. We often do not know much about their backgrounds, as many are found as strays before entering the shelter. However, before each dog enters our care, they are screened for being friendly with people and coexisting peacefully with other dogs in the shelter. If any other background information is known about your foster pup, we will always share it with you.