Foster FAQs
Considering becoming a foster parent for a dog? It's a rewarding journey where you open your home and heart to a furry friend in need. Fostering dogs provides temporary care, love, and training while they await their forever homes. By fostering, you play a crucial role in their rehabilitation and transition. Join us in making a difference—one wagging tail at a time!
SOSARL is a foster-based rescue meaning we do not have a physical shelter or location to house all our dogs. We rely on foster homes to keep our rescue dogs safe as they wait for their forever families. Most of our dogs come from the south where the dog population is out of control and there are endless dogs that need help every day. Every dog we bring north into our program is one step closer to finding their home, and also opens up a spot to help another at-risk dog in the south.
You get to be the savior for an animal in need, in a time when they need you most. It is an incredibly rewarding experience that you can learn so much from. It can be just as valuable for you as it is for the dog! And the need is immense! Even just committing to foster for a few weeks can make all the difference between making a miracle happen or not.
​​We provide all our foster homes with crates, veterinary care, and behavior support, as well as other supplies as donations allow. All fosters can also visit SOS reTAIL with their foster dog for free baths while in your care!
In addition to supplies, we provide our foster families with tons of resources. All our volunteers have access to our Volunteer Resource Center which has tips, tricks, processes, instructions, etc. to help you and your family be successful. We also have a foster coordination team that will be available to you to help with whatever you need and any questions you may have along the way.
Long term or short term time commitments are needed. Whether you can temporarily house a dog for two days, two weeks, or two months, being available for any time frame can be the difference for a dog having a chance to meet their forever families.
Visit our Available Dogs section to see all the dogs needing foster. For any dog that is marked *LOCAL*, the dog is currently in the northeast and may have a foster home or need a new one. For any dog that does not list local, they are still being housed with one of our southern partners and having a committed foster lined up will help us get them north faster.
Yes! We need short term fosters to help us with large events, like Always Adopt, but also for vacation coverage for some of our longer term fosters who deserve time off.
All types! Big, small, old, young. Males, females. Good with other dogs, not good with other dogs. Good with cats, not good with cats. Good with kids, not good with kids. People who are home all the time, people who go to work. We mainly need options to be able to accommodate the range of dogs we get in our program.
Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut residents are preferred. We ask foster homes to be able to transport their foster dogs to events or private meetings, so being in close proximity to southern and middle Rhode Island is necessary. For special needs dogs only (medical or behavioral), we may consider Massachusetts residents if we are able to clear the dog for Massachusetts adoption.
There are some key areas of your home to get ready for bringing in a foster and we will provide you with even more resources/information once you are on board. Here are just some of the things to keep in mind as you prepare:
- Prepare your pet - make sure they are up to date on all their vetting/immunizations before bringing in a new dog
- Prepare your home - Puppy proofing and getting items out of reach that you want to keep safe is essential. Any dog in a new environment wants to explore and it is your job to keep them safe from any dangers such as choking hazards, chemicals, toxic foods or plants, etc. If it is important to you, keep it out of reach.
- Prepare your yard - If you have a fence, make sure there are no holes or gaps in the fence and that the fence is secure before letting a foster dog off leash. Plan to never leave your foster dog in the yard unattended!
Check out some more tips here.
Yes! Help us spread the word that fostering saves lives and is so important to animal rescue! Talking about it and reminding people of the need is the most effective way to get folks interested in signing up. And there are other ways to get involved too if you still want to help out but can’t foster, including helping out fosters with additional boarding care (ABC) needs. Visit our Volunteer page for more information.
