 Mobility

All fosterers need to be mobile with their own vehicle or a family member able to provide mobility. Fosterers should be able and willing to travel to collect their foster cat(s)/ kitten(s), collect any supplies and be able to travel to the rescue me site veterinary clinic if and when necessary.

Please bear in mind our base is Melling in North Liverpool so you will need to be able travel to this location.

 Isolation

All admissions are gate way’d before being sent out to foster. During the gateway period, all admissions are health checked, wormed, de-flea’d, photographed and everything that can be dealt with at clinic is sorted.

You need to be able to provide a temporary isolation area in your home. This means a room in the house that is set aside away from the existing pets. Ideally this room has a non-carpeted floor that can be cleaned at ease and any issues with litter tray use attended to.

Please bear in mind that the first week or so of a foster placement can be stressful for both you and the cat, as a routine is developed and eating, drinking, social interaction, normal litter tray use and habits are achieved to your satisfaction.

Isolation allows you to monitor properly what is going on. We recommend that ten to fourteen days of isolation is acceptable after which more of the house can be allowed to the foster cats and mingling with your own pets and children be allowed.

 Disease and Zoonoses

This is the most difficult part of the fostering. Despite the gateway process before you are allowed your foster cat, despite the health checks and any veterinary intervention needed and despite your commitment to isolation, disease can break out.

The emergence of virus symptoms whether one of the cat flu strains or bowel disorders, can impact upon your household. Most viruses can be latent for up to 14 days before emerging in clear symptoms. Coping with disease and providing daily treatment for up to 14 days in these cases can be challenging and we will of course support you with this and all veterinary cover provided.

Equally importantly the virus can impact on your own cats. If you have your own cats they need to be fully vaccinated. We have to accept not all viruses are covered by routine vaccines and the charity cannot guarantee fully that the indirect exposure your own cat may experience could affect them.

Please be aware that we as carers or nurses act as primary vector in virus and disease spread. It is no different in hospitals. Isolation, hygiene, careful monitoring and common sense is all important.

Lastly the charity has to deal with zoonoses. These are diseases that cross the species barrier. Occasionally we encounter ringworm, a sporal infection of the skin, common in stables, common in hedgehogs and found in outdoor populations of cats and kittens.

Ringworm is highly contagious, can take six weeks to treat, can be caught by you, your children, your cats and your dogs. It can also take 14 days to emerge on the skin of the cat without any prior warning or symptom.

Naturally we would not allow any of our fosterers to deal with ringworm treatment on their own and in most cases have removed the foster cats showing signs of the disease immediately from the foster home.

 Public viewing

We will expect you to keep and care for the foster animal until the day they are adopted.

We organise and manage all adoption enquiries. We will contact you when we have found an adopter your foster animal. We will expect the fosterer to allow the adopter into their home when the cat/ kitten is being adopted.

 Risk

Allowing foster families onto our register is all about managing risk. We have a duty to inform you of these risks, we have a duty to educate you how to manage those risks at home and we have a duty to manage those risks for each foster cat before it reaches you. Be assured that the incidence of disease, virus outbreak and zoonose incidence is minimal.

Please send us an email if you have any questions: info@rescueme.org.uk