Foster carers needed to help surrendered pets ahead of Christmas

It takes a particular kind of human to offer a temporary haven to homeless pets, and there just aren’t enough of them.

Animal rescue organisations are going into the festive season feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the sheer volume of demand.

It’s a time when more pets are dumped by their owners, fewer foster carers are available, last resort places at commercial kennels are all booked up and inevitably more unclaimed dogs and cats are killed in pounds and shelters.

Fostering a very special dog

Calley Gibson gave up a career in advertising to become an animal carer and is now director of her own rescue service in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges.

Ms Gibson inadvertently created a social media sensation in 2013, starring her “serious, well-behaved, bow-legged” staffy Pikelet.

“There wasn’t a lot of pets on social media back then … the bigger accounts that were popping up were not rescue dogs, they were French bulldogs or pugs, pure breeds, the ones that society deems popular,” Ms Gibson said. 

The Life of Pikelet has 144,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook — and shows the journey of Pikelet Butterwiggle, and his many adopted and fostered siblings.

Ms Gibson already had two dogs when she fostered Pikelet.

“I pretty much fell in love and started to really harass my fiancé at the time … asking almost daily, can we adopt him?” she said.

Fate stepped in when Pikelet swallowed her engagement ring, and after an emergency trip to the vet and sorting through a number of his binned poo bags, the diamond ring was safely recovered intact.

“I just rang the rescue, and I was like, ‘He’s mine!'”

Sadly, Pikelet recently passed away.

After months of successful chemotherapy for leukaemia, he succumbed to the effects of anaemia, but his 11-and-a-half years on this planet were well spent as a poster boy for all the unwanted underdogs.

“Pikelet was a pound puppy on death row with rickets, the dog that nobody wanted. We’ve always taken on, and really tried to promote on social media, the dogs that people would probably overlook…so deaf dogs, blind dogs, dogs with different abilities.”

Successful fostering needs a bit of leg work

Ms Gibson said all animal rescue organisations were under pressure right now.

“Everyone’s full, everyone’s struggling, a lot of rescues have had to close their intake at some point, so foster carers are so in need,” she said.

Ms Gibson said the best foster carers were people who understood when you take on a rescue pet, you’re only going to be looking after them until they get adopted, and that you are saving a life.

Victorian Dog Rescue president Trisha Taylor agreed and said they had to stop intake between August and September this year.

“All our dogs have to go into foster care in private homes … and if we get caught with a dog, with someone going away or whatever, we use commercial kennels. So our commercial kennel bill is quite high,” Ms Taylor said.

She said around a third of their regular foster carers would go away during the festive season.

“We have about 100 dogs and cats in our care at the moment, so we have to not only cater to them, but we have to try to help the others that are being dumped in pounds at Christmas.

“If we can help anyone hold their dog over that period by giving them food or doing what we can paying for vet work, we’ll do anything to just get past this really dangerous period.”

Victorian Dog Rescue advertises widely and has around 100 active foster carers, with another 50 on the books waiting for a particular type of dog.

“We wouldn’t give a new foster carer a difficult dog, we’d be more likely to give them a surrendered dog with a known background, but we have some fantastic foster carers — one has cared for about 37 dogs for us,” Ms Taylor said.

Dumped rural pets have fewer options

Ms Taylor said working on the frontline could be extremely stressful for volunteers when you were going into the pound to see the dogs on death row.

Carolyn Stow runs Phoenix Animal Rescue at Horsham, in western Victoria, and has done this kind of unpaid work for 18 years.

She said the number of foster carers had definitely decreased and they often had to beg or guilt people into helping.

Ms Stow said more animals were being surrendered, but there were a lot less people willing to open their homes to them.

“We pay for all the [animal’s] food, all their veterinary care, vaccinations, provide bedding, toys and that sort of stuff, so there’s no cost for that foster,” she said.

Foster carers were only asked to give the animals some love, treat them like their own pet, provide a safe environment, set some boundaries and give them some basic training if needed.