Foster caregivers provide temporary care for cats, kittens, dogs, and puppies in their own homes. Some animals need just a few weeks of foster care, while others may need longer-term foster placement. Fostering is flexible enough for most lifestyles and, because we want the experience to be beneficial for both you and the animal, we allow you to choose which animals you’re interested in fostering. By offering your time, love, and home to an animal in need, you are changing a life for the better.

Animals in Need of Foster Care

• Kittens and puppies who are too young to be spayed/neutered and adopted out into permanent homes
• Cats and dogs who are nursing a litter of kittens or puppies
• Cats and dogs who are being treated for injuries or illnesses
• Cats and dogs who are overwhelmed by the shelter environment
• Cats and dogs seeking virtual adoption ambassadors

Pets in Crisis Support Foster Pets

Our Pets in Crisis Support Program works with established organizations to help pet parents who are facing eviction, domestic violence, or hospitalization and need help with temporary housing for their pets. This program utilizes foster parents vetted through Atlanta Humane to care for these animals for up to 90 days. If you are interested in helping out pets in crisis, please note that there is a separate sign up process to become a foster due to the program’s nature. To sign up to become a Pets in Crisis Support foster, start by filling out this form.

How Foster Care Works

The Atlanta Humane Society provides all veterinary care, medicine, food, and supplies needed for foster animals, in addition to plenty of support to foster caregivers. Foster parent volunteers provide a nurturing, warm, and safe environment as well as lots of love. When you become a foster caregiver, you will receive an email once or twice a week with animals who need a foster home along with each animal’s biography and why they are seeking a foster home. Foster caregivers then let our foster team know who they’d like to foster and schedule a time to visit the Atlanta Humane Society to pick up their new foster animal.

Fosters should live within 30 minutes of one of our shelter locations. We want our foster caregivers to be within close driving distance to come in for scheduled medical appointments and to pick up needed supplies for your foster animal. If a foster animal experiences a medical emergency and needs to see a veterinarian immediately, we want you to be in close enough proximity to either of our shelter locations to be able to provide the animal the care it may need quickly.

Get Started

Your first step in becoming an Atlanta Humane Society foster caregiver is signing up for one of our virtual foster caregiver orientations or watch a pre-recorded version. Live orientations are held virtually once a month. We are experiencing an increased interest in fostering and our foster orientations are filling up quickly, so please keep an eye on this page for new foster orientations.