Foster Care

We are often in need of a temporary foster home for an animal for variety of reasons.

  • A Windham County resident is facing a medical, housing, or other emergency and needs short term housing for their pet(s) until the crisis passes

  • Some pets have a history of trauma and the chaotic shelter environment is not conducive to their thriving; this is especially true for longer term residents and dogs with special medical needs

  • A mother cat and her kittens

Foster Requirements

The time commitment is up to two months. Fostering cats or dogs includes:

  • feeding

  • cleaning

  • socializing

  • closely monitoring health

You must be able to administer medications, if needed, and have reliable transportation for check-ins. You must also be a Vermont resident.

For dog fosters, it's best if you have no dogs but if you do have dogs who love all other dogs, we’ll ask you to do a meet and greet at the shelter, just to make sure they get along.

WCHS provides all food, medicines, and medical care for animals in foster care.

We welcome interested people to file out the foster application (blue button below) so that we can contact you when we have an animal that might match your household. Potential foster families can identify which situations and animals they are interested in on their application.

After submitting an application, a staff member will be in touch to discuss next steps.