foster

Mother-Daughter Superstar Fosters Approach 100th Foster Animal

Meet Tiffany and Jeanne, the mother-daughter duo, who have fostered dozens of bottle babies! These two superstar fosters have fostered 89 animals in total. That’s incredible!

Of those 89 animals, they’ve had 2 mama cats, 8 older kittens, and 3 puppies, with the remaining 76 all being bottle babies. In addition to fostering these 89 animals, they constantly help out when other fosters are out of town. That’s a lot of fostering!

Tiffany and Jeanne learned about Planned PEThood of Georgia years ago, when Jeanne, the mom, was driving by and saw an opening sign outside our building. She stopped by to ask if we took volunteers. That’s when it all began.

One February during an extremely prolific kitten season, when Tiffany was volunteering at the front desk, someone dropped off a solo bottle baby at the front door and drove away. Elizabeth, our Executive Director, started calling all of our bottle baby fosters, desperately searching for someone to care for this bottle baby. While Elizabeth was making these calls, another staff member was showing Tiffany how to feed the bottle baby. Her mom walked in and asked, “What’s that?”. Tiffany explained the situation and her mom said, “She’ll take her.”. And so, they brought home their first bottle baby. That’s when their fostering all began. Another litter showed up the next day and their first bottle baby suddenly turned into three.

A few years later, Tiffany and Jeanne switched over to fostering bottle babies full-time. Bottle babies are a tremendous amount of work, but over the years, they have created the perfect system. Jeanne takes the day shifts and Tiffany covers the nights. This way no one loses sleep. They even have their own incubator at their home for the bottle babies.

Natsu, one of their foster fails

Not only have Tiffany and Jeanne helped dozens of animals find their forever home, but they have also adopted several animals of their own. That first kitten they ever fostered was their first foster fail and became a permanent part of their family. These two do more than fostering. Jeanne constantly helps out with our Wednesday shelter days as a part of our Go Fix Georgia program and Tiffany does bottle-feeding demonstrations at various events for Planned PEThood.We asked Tiffany a few questions about her experience fostering with Planned PEThood of Georgia. Below are her answers.

Why do you continue to foster with Planned PEThood? Planned PEThood keeps calling us with kittens!

What is your favorite part about fostering? The reward of seeing a little 80g bean grown into a lively kitten and go to a forever home.

What advice do you have for someone interested in fostering? Think of being a foster like being a Kindergarten teacher. You provide the education and nutrition until they graduate to their new homes. Yes, it is hard to let them go, but there’s a new class waiting for the same opportunity to grow! Every cat that ‘graduates’ means another you can save after that!

What do you get out of fostering with Planned PEThood? I get a lot of purpose out of fostering. I’m disabled so that limits a lot of options in employment. Working with animals gave me something meaningful to do with my time. I got inspired by some of our medical challenges with the little ones to go to Vet Tech school, so I could do better and save more kittens. Turns out that my disability is a barrier there too, but I might be able to be a Vet Assistant. Fostering has also inspired me to look into building my own neonatal nursery. I hope to continue to work through Planned PEThood if that ever comes to fruition. 

Volunteers and foster parents are vital to our success. The animals depend on our efforts to place them on solid ground. If you have even a tiny bit of time to spare, a unique talent or trade to offer, or a spare bathroom/basement to occupy, consider contacting Planned PEThood today. 

Apply to become a volunteer.

Apply to become a foster home.

If you have any questions about fostering, email foster@PEThoodGA.org

If you have any questions about volunteering, email volunteer@PEThoodGA.org

Fostering and volunteering are rewarding experiences. Your life will be filled with more hair, but your heart will be happy!

Read more

Keep the Mama, Not the Drama!

Earlier this year, a family reached out to Planned PEThood for help. They needed assistance with their kitties, Pumpkin and Reesee. Reesee had an accidental pregnancy and the family did not know what to do. They loved their animals so they wanted to do whatever they could to keep their kitties healthy and safe, but finances were tight. 

Thanks to our Keep the Mama, Not the Drama Program, sponsored by Orphan Kitten Club, we were able to get both pets fixed and take their two baby kittens, Jamie and Claire, into our rescue program.

The goal of this program is to help struggling pet owners with accidental litters keep their cats while we spay, vet them, and find homes for their babies. This ends the cycle, saves lives, and prevents future unwanted litters.

Their family is so grateful that we were able to find loving, forever homes for the kittens, plus they do not have to worry about their pet’s health anymore! No more babies! Yay!

Jamie and Claire found their forever homes quickly. Just look at their faces, how could they not! Sweet Claire was adopted at one of our Pet Supermarket adoption events and Jamie was adopted at one of our Petco adoption events.

If you or someone you know needs help from this program learn more or apply here. 

Read more

Kittens Stuck In Drain……AGAIN!

Our Feral Cat Manager, Amy, is at it again, rescuing kittens from storm drains. But this time, it was a bit tricker. 

A kind lady reached out to Amy asking for help. She had found a kitten laying in her backyard, asleep in a nice sunny spot. While this kitten was safe, another was in trouble. The lady heard the cries of another kitten coming from a storm drain. The kitten had somehow stumbled into the storm drain with no way to get out. Amy searched for the mama, but she was nowhere to be seen. 

With the kitten stuck down there and no way to get into the storm drain, Amy had to get creative to help the kitty out. Thankfully, with her quick thinking, Amy was able to put together a net using rope, a lingerie washing bag, and some metal wiring to catch the kitten. Amy had to meow to the kitty to get her to move toward the net. After several minutes of meowing, the kitten finally crawled her way into the net and Amy was able to lift the kitten to safety. 

After rescuing these kittens, we brought them into our foster program, hoping to find a foster who had the knowledge and skill to bottle feed these 2-week-old babies. One of our amazing, long-time fosters, Zarya, stepped up and took them home. Now, several weeks later, these kittens are living happy and healthy lives at their foster home. Once they are big enough, they will be microchipped, vaccinated, and spayed/neutered, before becoming available for adoption and starting their journey to find their forever homes. 

Read more

Hello… Are you There?

Psst… hello… do you see me? Pay attention to me! Aren’t I cute? Wouldn’t I make a great addition to your family?

My name is Leonardo and I was found in a ditch behind my foster home’s house with my siblings as a little baby. Thanks to my foster home and Planned PEThood of Georgia I am safe and healthy, ready for adoption, but not every animal is as lucky as me. 

There are hundreds of other animals waiting in local shelters that need help, like I did. I did some research, and there are some very simple ways you can help homeless animals in Georgia! Do you want to hear about them?

GREAT! 

1. Become a foster home. If you have a spare bathroom to share with some kitties you could become a short-term foster parent, and become the first step on the road to adoption for animals in need. Foster homes for cats and dogs are needed for as little as two weeks, or longer if you’re able. Email foster@PEThoodGA.org with questions.

2. Adopt a pet, or two. Until September 30th adoption fees for our cats are 50% off the normal rates. Browse cats available for adoption and submit an application NOW! (Kittens always go better in pairs!) 

3. Support our efforts. There are many ways you can get involved without adopting or fostering an animal. You can donate needed supplies on our Amazon Wish List, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, or volunteer your time. 

4. Save the date. Join thousands of fellow Georgia nonprofits – and organizations worldwide – coming together for our state’s next annual day of generosity: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 is Georgia Gives Day. View our profile, mark the date on your calendar, and help us raise $25,000 between Nov. 1 and Dec. 3. If you think your business may be interested in sponsoring a matching gift challenge for GA Gives Day please e-mail us

5. Give the gift of life with a donation. Contributions in any amount help us in our mission to save lives through creative and innovative solutions like our working cat program, low-cost spay/neuter clinic, vaccination clinics and our newest spay/neuter and rescue transport program, Go Fix Georgia

So, what do you think about these ideas? Simple, huh? Which one of these can you do to help the organization that helped me so much? 

Read more