Megan Navarro
HAYS COUNTY — With more than 100 pets available on-site between its two campuses, PAWS of Central Texas is advocating for more fosters in the community by taking part in a nationwide challenge.
The Foster 50 Challenge, through the Pedigree Foundation, challenges both foster- and shelter-based animal welfare organizations nationwide from May 1 through July 31 to get creative in trying to recruit and retain fosters — a struggle that is found especially during the summer months as more people travel and go on vacation, according to PAWS adoption counselor Katheryn White. Other goals are to increase adoptions that come directly from foster relationships and ultimately, reduce length of stay in the shelter.
While Hays County is rapidly expanding, with new neighborhoods popping up all over, there is still a disconnect when finding fosters to take in the animals that the shelters currently house, according to White, who also shared the following most recent data for PAWS:
• There have been 67 puppies placed into foster care since March
• PAWS currently has 120 pets — including adult cats and dogs, as well as puppies and kittens — available on-site between the two campuses in Kyle and Dripping Springs
• PAWS currently has 55 pets in foster homes
The critical need has also been heightened by kitten season — which typically occurs in the warmer months as more animals are out breeding — and PAWS is seeing anywhere from five to 10 people per day right now, not knowing what to do when they find stray kittens out in the community.
PAWS also knows that it could benefit from being entered into the $240,000 grant pool that is divided up and awarded to the organizations who participate in the challenge.
“Back in October, we made an announcement on social media that our Kyle campus doors would be closing, but thanks to our amazing community that rallied behind us, they raised so much money [that] we were able to keep our doors open. So, we made a promise to ourselves [and] we made a promise to the community that we would do everything in our power to be more strategic and bring in funding, so we would never be at risk of closing our doors again,” White said. “When we stumbled across this challenge, we thought it could help kind of fit those two sore spots for us, so continuing to find funding and then, continuing to save lives.”
The organizations are called on by the Pedigree Foundation to get creative in how they work to increase their number of fosters. While PAWS is implementing new initiatives, like taking an active approach in asking for help, one thing remains true: a focus on the community.
White shared that at PAWS’ Kyle campus, they hosted a “kitten shower” event a few weeks ago where they were able to take an active role in educating the community in what it means to foster and how to sign up. Knowing that it can be intimidating, they also had a baby kitten bottle feeding demonstration conducted by their medical and foster team to “start breaking down those barriers and having conversations with our community to make fostering seem less scary and daunting and then, also to let them know, ‘You're not alone when you take a foster home. Our team is right here next to you every step of the way,’” the adoption counselor said.
PAWS is also working to promote its animals for the first time, as well as increasing adoption events in Hays County, but also further into the Austin area.
White explained that they have also expanded their reach by listing the animals who need a medical foster to adopt on the PAWS website; this could be for a kitten who has a respiratory infection or ringworm or a dog who has heartworms and needs to undergo treatment, for example.
“[It] gets them out of our shelter environment [and] towards the decreasing length of stay, but also gets the animal out of that stressful kennel [and] shelter environment, which helps their overall healing process. You're more likely to get better and feel better when you're cozy in a home and not in a kennel, but for the first time, we're kind of opening that up and making those types of foster to adopt situations more accessible to our community,” she said. “We've been able to send a few pets into those medical foster to adopt with the ultimate goal of them getting healthy and then, an adoption at the end, which is great.”
PAWS encourages the community to sign up to foster, however that looks: “That is how you can help us save lives and depending on what their lifestyle looks like. We need people who are committed to fostering animals for two months, but we also need people who maybe they're a little bit more busy Monday through Friday, but they can take a dog for a shelter break Friday night, Saturday night and return the dog on Sunday for weekend sleepovers,” White said.
Those who are unable to foster are encouraged to help share the word on social media, but also by helping keep the supplies that PAWS gives to the current foster families. White shared that they are in "desperate need” of kitten supplies, including litter, formula, food, litter boxes and more.
“If you can't support us through this challenge by actively fostering — we know not everyone can — help support us by providing the supplies we need that we can extend to people who step up to foster,” she said. “Both of them are critical pieces of this challenge and then, also just engaging with us on social media, sharing our foster posts and helping us just get the word out about the amazing animals we have.”
PAWS is offering its challenge at both the Kyle and Dripping Springs campuses. To learn more about how to foster, or to ask any questions, visit the PAWS website www.pawsshelter.org and follow its Facebook page at bit.ly/4axNyS6.
