With fostering, ‘goodbye is the goal.’ We want our foster pets to reach the stage where they’re ready to move on from their foster home to their adoptive home. It can be hard to say goodbye to a foster pet when you’ve put weeks and sometimes months into caring for them. Thankfully, Seattle Humane foster parent Renee B. knows every new foster will become her favorite in no time! Our February Foster Spotlight grew up with a zeal to heal that started with animals, but Renee ended up pursuing a career in human medicine.
“I’ve loved and been drawn to animals my whole life,” she says. “I was that kid who brought home injured birds, squirrels and rabbits and tried to nurse them back to health. I also grew up with dogs and had a pony. If I hadn’t become a human doctor, I would probably have become a veterinarian.”
Renee had spent many years fostering dogs for another organization and briefly fostered cats for a feline-focused shelter before she started volunteering with Seattle Humane almost five years ago.
“I switched to Seattle Humane because I felt the need was greater and appreciated the broad range of options for volunteering,” she says. “Being a physician has helped with some of the more medically challenging cases, but mostly it’s been my experiences with my own pets and successive fosters that have helped me understand what companion animals need to thrive.”
Renee says she feels like a hero when she fosters, and we whole-heartedly agree! Fostering takes a lot of hard work, commitment and emotional fortitude, and we are thankful for every one of the 500 foster parents in our network.
While Renee focuses on caring for very young and vulnerable kittens, she also has two cats of her own, one of which she’d previously fostered through Seattle Humane. Known as a “foster fail,” we know every happy adoption is actually a great success. Our hearts go out to Renee and her senior dog, Keiko, whom she lost last summer “after 14 wonderful years of companionship.”
A foodie who enjoys traveling to places with exquisite cuisine and, ideally, good horseback riding, Renee also loves cooking at home in her spare time. On top of fostering for Seattle Humane, she also volunteers with a hospice program.
Renee’s advice for folks wanting to foster is to consider what they can handle and how fostering fits into their lifestyle.
“Start small and know that it’s just as courageous to say ‘no’ as it is to say ‘yes.’ Fostering can be a lot of work, but the rewards are enormous” she says. “And the foster team is incredibly supportive and wants you to be successful.
