20/09/2025
You might need a tissue close by for this one! 🥹
Megan and Mike are an integral part of our pet fostering family and have this to say about why they encourage YOU to foster for us. ❤
'My husband and I brought our first home mid COVID and unfortunately lost our soul cat shortly afterwards. We reached out to Blue Cross when the pang of an empty home became too much, hoping to become a foster home for cats and kittens. Fate took a hold a few days later and we found ourselves new cat parents again, making fostering cats a considerably more tricky operation for us. After conversations with the wonderful foster team at Blue Cross, we were delighted to be asked to become foster carers for their small animals.
As avid animal lovers, Michael and I grew up with a veritable zoo of pets, from snakes to rabbits. Being foster parents for Blue Cross allows us to nurture and care for smallies before they go to their forever home, whilst expanding our knowledge and love for such a diverse range of animals.
These little loveables come in to our home with all of the supplies, enrichment, food and substrate required - all we have to provide is time and love. We spend on average around an hour per day with the little ones, cleaning, feeding, playing and socialising them. Some of them come to us confident and happy, some a little more anxious and in need of coaxing out of their shells, but each and every whisker leaves an imprint on our hearts.
Placements with us vary from just a few short days right up to a few months with animals who require a special set of requirements from their new parents. During this time, we treat them as part of our family, taking them to the vet where necessary and keeping Blue Cross updated on their progress. Our photography skills have had to step up quite considerably to get pretty shots of the speedy mice and gerbils!!
We were blessed with two large critter nation cages which we foster rats, degus and chinchillas within, and one long aquarium style tank for the hamsters, gerbils and mice, all provided by Blue Cross. We are fortunate enough to have two spare rooms in our house to accommodate them, but the set ups can be far more compact if you have all the time and love to foster, but are more limited on space.
Blue Cross provide us with all training on nutrition, health and enrichment for each species we look after, as well as being on hand for advice whenever we need it. All vet care and expenses are paid for by them, which is so reassuring, and their genuine care and love for each of the animals we see is heart warming.
Saying goodbye is always the most difficult part, but knowing that Blue Cross are desperately in need of safe foster homes is what keeps us going (or i'd have adopted them all by now!) I cry, each and every time we drop them off to go to their new home, but it's tears of happiness and pride of being part of the process to obtaining their forever home. There's no time to sulk though, as it's home to deep clean and prepare the pens for the next set of ears and whiskers that need us.
Being part of the Blue Cross foster team makes us both incredibly proud and enriches our lives constantly. We don't have the ability to wipe out animal welfare as a concern completely, but we are doing our little bit by making these little lives happier day by day, and that's why we do it.'
If would like to know more about fostering and how it works please email us on [email protected] or register your interest by completing our application, here’s the link: https://volunteer.bluecross.org.uk/opportunities/67139-pet-foster-carer-mid-devon-2024-05-31
