How You Can Help During COVID-19

Wondering how you can help during the COVID-19 crisis? Here are a few things you can do to help and be a Homeward Hero:

• Donate. With our major spring fundraising events in jeopardy, donations are more important than ever. We rely on folks like you to help provide care to homeless animals while we wait out the current health crisis. Animals still keep coming, even if we can’t adopt them out right now. Please give a gift today.

Why do we need donations right now?

Right now, all of our planned fundraising events are on hold for the near future. We are not a government-funded organization; we rely on personal donations to keep our lights on and our animals fed. Without our fundraising events, a major source of income for us is completely lost—and we have no idea when things will return to normal.

Furthermore, although we’re still continuing to provide excellent care to our animals, we cannot adopt them out right now. Revenue from adoption fees and donations won’t be coming in for awhile, but our animals will still need food, supplies, and medical treatment.

• Ship supplies. We are unable to accept donation drop-offs at this time, but there’s a list of items we need on our Amazon Wish List. However, because the items are frequently out of stock, we’ll happily accept shipments from other retailers. Our most needed items currently are: toilet paper, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and paper towels.
  
  
• Share our story. We completely understand if you can’t help in the above ways—but you may know someone who can! Share Homeward Pet’s story (did you know we’ve saved around for 33,500+ animals since 1990?) and ask them to help us continue saving animals this year.

Thank you so much for any way you can help—together, we’ll make it through.

Emergency Foster FAQs

Thank you for your interest in fostering! Right now, with uncertainty about the future, volunteer foster families are more important than ever to helping our animals find safe, caring homes. We appreciate anyone who is willing to help!

Emergency Foster FAQs

Does Homeward Pet need help with emergency fostering?

Yes – we are always looking for more families willing to help foster! Even if you don’t foster an animal right away, we still need fosters in reserve in case any of our current foster families become unable to care for their foster animals.

How do I sign up to be an emergency foster?

If you are a current volunteer, please email and ask to be put on the emergency foster list. If you are not a current volunteer that is ok! Please sign up online to be an emergency foster.

Can I choose my foster animal?

We will try to match you with the best fit we can, but we cannot guarantee that you will be able to pick exactly which foster animal you take home.

How long would I keep my emergency foster?

The short answer is that we just do not know. If a shelter in place announcement comes, we may be asking fosters to keep their foster animals for up to 3 weeks. If you are able to be an emergency foster, please plan on keeping your foster animal for 3 weeks and obtain the appropriate amount of supplies for that length of time.

How will I know if I am needed?

Once you are on the Homeward Pet emergency foster list you will be notified by email any time that we need help with emergency fostering.

COVID-19 Adoption Process

Homeward Pet is currently closed for regular adoption hours and doing adoptions by appointment only. Because of the limited number of appointments and reduced Counseling staff, we ask that you only submit an application for a specific animal, after reviewing the available information on that animal.

To adopt an animal from Homeward Pet at this time, please follow these steps:

1. Complete and submit an online Dog or Cat Application. Look at our Available Cats and Available Dogs and identify an animal you would like to meet, taking into account all relevant factors (your other pets, family situation, the animal’s activity level, etc.). Fill in all of the mandatory fields and the name of the animal you’re interested in adopting. Applications will be considered in the order received. However, priority will be given to adopters who are interested in a specific animal.

CAT ADOPTION APPLICATION
DOG ADOPTION APPLICATION

2. One of our Adoption Counselors will call you for a counseling session over the phone. During this conversation, you’ll learn more about the animal and our Adoption Counselor will help you determine if this animal would be a good fit for your family and living situation.

Counseling sessions will take place Wednesday – Friday, 12 – 2 pm and 3 pm – 5 pm.

3. If you and the Adoption Counselor agree that an animal is a good fit for you, the Counselor will make an appointment for you and your family to come in and meet the animal.

In-person appointments for adoption will be on Saturday and Sunday between 12 pm and 4:30 pm.

*Note: Completion of the application is the first step in our adoption process, and does not guarantee adoption.

Before submitting an application, please read our animals’ profiles on the Available Cats and Available Dogs pages, consider what is included about each animal’s history with other dogs or cats, our recommendation for an appropriate age for kids to live with that animal, and what we know about that animal’s behavior, temperament, medical issues or exercise needs. Because of the limited number of appointments, only submit an application for an animal when you are able to meet all of those recommendations and believe that you can provide an appropriate home.

If you have already visited Homeward Pet (in the past 90 days) and have an application on file, you can email , let us know that you already have an application on file, and include the name of the specific animal you’re interested in.

Through this process we hope to provide a safer environment for our visitors, staff and volunteers, and continue to help our animals in need. Thank you for your understanding.