By Sarah Wyatt
After fostering dozens of puppies and dogs for Basset Rescue of Puget Sound, West Seattle resident Suzie Wedia still celebrates when a new family adopts one of her charges. She looks forward to placing Bruno. The tri-colored basset hound follows her around her home and paws Wedia’s legs until she sits down on the sofa, then snuggles into her arms. Another foster Basset, Boo, vies for attention.

“It's worth the work because I love all animals and it makes me feel good to help out,” she says.
Nearby are scrapbooks, compiled by Wedia’s daughter, filled with pictures of foster animals eating, sleeping and playing. Each photo includes a short biography for each dog, usually ending with the date the animal was adopted.

April has been a busy month for Wedia. In addition to fostering Bruno and Boo, she also took in two red basset females, Naomi and Wynonna, each currently available for adoption. The pair was reluctantly given up by a Ballard family whose home was foreclosed. The economic downtown has caused an increase in the intakes at animal shelters in Puget Sound as affected families must move into apartments, shared housing, or homeless shelters that do not allow companion animals.

Area shelters routinely rely on volunteers like Wedia to house extra animals, raise underage puppies and kittens to an adoptable age and serve as convalescent centers for ailing animals. Last year, Basset Rescue of Puget Sound placed over 100 dogs in foster care.

During the spring and summer, also known as puppy and kitten season, local rescue agencies need more volunteers as cage and kennel space fills. Pet owners often drop off litters at municipal shelters and many times the puppies and kittens are too young to be weaned so they must be handfed. Many would have died without foster volunteers to care for them.

The rescue has taken in several bassets from a puppy mill in Texas. The dogs were said to be kept at the mill in a dilapidated metal horse trailer in crowded, filthy conditions. Some of the dogs require socialization and veterinary care. The rescue seeks additional foster homes to help nurse them back to health.

Not all fostering is as urgent or intensive. Many fosters, like Naomi and Wynonna, are healthy adults who require temporary loving homes while the dog or cat is listed on the shelter’s site and adoptive homes are screened. Occasionally, a litter of puppies or kittens requires a loving home until they are mature enough for adoption. Some, such as kittens with upper respiratory infections or colds, just require isolation and simple antibiotic treatment. They can be fostered in a space as small as a spare bathroom.

Friends of the Animals, a West Seattle cat and kitten rescue, utilizes foster homes while awaiting cage space at their public adoption locations. The cats are offered for adoption at the Next to Nature pet supply store and VCA West Seattle Animal Hospital.

“If we had just 20 more foster homes to host just one litter a year each, we could have shelter space to rescue more cats and kittens bound for euthanasia at the municipal shelters,” explained Friends of the Animals Director Marianne Hudson.

Animal fostering began informally in the Pacific Northwest nearly 20 years ago, when shelters needed extra hands and hearts to care for puppies and kittens too young to be adopted. Many required bottle-feeding. Most foster parents also volunteered at the shelter. Shelters expanded and organized their foster programs, placing more adult animals into temporary homes. Many foster parents today choose to specialize in home care and have no other volunteer contact with the shelter.

“Our foster homes seem to have a great time with the cats and kittens they foster, particularly the kittens,” said Hudson.  “The energy of kittens can be fun to have in the house, without the expense and commitment of adding another animal to the home permanently.”

Hudson says she counts the 125 cats the shelter placed in foster care last year as “saves” since they have a better chance of being adopted and even finding homes with the co-workers and friends of the foster families. Adult animals that may go into depression in cages thrive in home settings.

“While we can only have six to ten cats on display for adoption at a time at Next to Nature or the VCA West Seattle Veterinary Hospital. Foster care allows us to have sometimes as many as three dozen cats and kittens waiting in the wings for adoption.”

Foster homes are a mainstay of no-kill rescues such as Basset Rescue of Puget Sound. Foster caretakers can help the shelter by providing extra love and space. Friends of the Animals and other agencies offer training and supplies. The shelters also cover any medical care the animal needs.

Wedia began fostering basset hounds after fostering special-needs teenagers for several years. She notes that her foster children have become part of the family dog fostering team.

“The best help ever comes from my foster children,” Wedia explained. “I foster teen boys and all of them are given a dog as their own to foster. I like to think I am raising good, responsible dog owners for the future while giving them both someone to love of their own. I supervise everything and lead by example.”
The inevitability of parting with the foster animals doesn’t make Wedia hesitate to take in another puppy or dog. She often receives e-mail updates from her fosters’ new families.

“It is fun to watch the dogs get what they need to have a good life and we all know we will be kept in the loop of their progress and life, many until old age,” Wedia said. “If we do not let go, we cannot continue to do fostering; and that is the goal, to help as many dogs as possible.”

For more information about fostering dogs, or adopting Naomi or Wynonna, call Basset Rescue of Puget Sound at (206) 769-7763 or visit www.adoptabasset.net. For information about fostering or adopting cats, contact Friends of the Animals Foundation at (206) 719-4864 or visit www.fafseattle.org.