Shelter seeks volunteers to foster dogs around Thanksgiving

Stacey Smith wasn’t planning on permanently adding another dog to her home when she showed up at The Animal Foundation in Las Vegas just before it closed the night before Thanksgiving last year.

She’d heard about the nonprofit foundation’s program that allowed people to foster dogs for a week around Thanksgiving, and she thought it would be a good way to fill the space left behind by her three senior dogs who had died that year, while also helping a dog in need.

As Smith walked through the foundation’s selection of foster dogs, she looked for the ones who had been there the longest. Eventually, she found Patches, a 9-year-old, gray-and-white-spotted pit bull mix with big brown eyes that had been living at the shelter for more than five months.

She took Patches home with a week’s worth of food and told the foundation she’d be back the following Wednesday. But once she got home, she knew she couldn’t bring the dog back.

“She needed a stable home, and I knew that I could give it to her,” Smith said.

At first, Smith tried to find a home to take Patches in, putting up adoption ads and hosting multiple meet-and-greets with potential new owners. One family even did a trial adoption with Patches, she said.

But by the end of January, nobody had adopted Patches, and Smith had fallen in love.

“We had multiple potential adoptions fall through, and I couldn’t bear to bring her back to the foundation after having her for that long,” Smith said. “She was a perfect fit in our family. Plus, my other dog, Winston, absolutely loved her.”

The Animal Foundation is running the same holiday foster promotion this year, and it has no shortage of medium and large pups looking for a home for the holidays.

“No one should have to spend Thanksgiving alone, especially shelter dogs,” Christi Dineff, director of lifesaving programs at the foundation, said in a statement. “If you have room for a special guest this Thanksgiving, there are hundreds of dogs in our shelter who would love to cozy up with you and your family over the holiday period.”

Foster parents don’t have to commit to adopting their temporary pup, but Smith said there are many benefits to taking a dog home, even for a week.

“Some people think it’s mean, that the dog will think they’re being adopted, but that’s not the case,” Smith said. “It’s really good for these dogs, especially the ones who have been in the shelter for a while, to get out and get to experience a family environment, even if only for a week.”

Smith said she has fostered many dogs over the years, and Patches is not the first she has adopted. But she said that even if a foster parent doesn’t end up adopting the dog, fostering one for a week can help make the pup more adoptable in the long run.

“When you keep a dog, even for a short time, you get to know them better and learn how they interact in a family environment,” Smith said. “Then you can tell potential adopters about them, whether they’re house-trained, if they like kids or other pets, things like that. And that can really go a long way in helping to get them adopted.”

It’s not too late to take home a furry friend this holiday season — the foundation is looking for potential foster parents to pick up their temporary pets by Wednesday and host them through the holidays.

As long as a foster parent commits to a full week of care, the foundation will provide all the necessary supplies: a week’s worth of food, a harness, a leash, a bandana, business cards to give to potential adopters, a collapsible bowl and treats.

If foster parents decide to adopt their holiday pet, the foundation said it will waive the adoption fee. If the adopting parents live in Las Vegas or North Las Vegas, they will owe $10 to cover the city fee.

Anyone looking to foster this holiday season can reach out to The Animal Foundation at foster@animalfoundation.com to apply.

Contact Alexis Egeland at aegeland@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexis_egeland on Twitter.