Pet fostering programs help match families with 4-legged friends

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - While living with a pet can be a fun and exciting experience, pet ownership is a huge responsibility that comes with challenges.

Before choosing to bring an animal into a household, potential pet owners should do research on what type of dog or cat would work best in their family and look for things like whether the animal can behave around other pets or children.

One way to do this is to use a foster-to-adopt program which allows the pet to live in your home for a trial period.

“We do have a foster to adopt with our volunteers. So, if a parent is interested and they want to become a volunteer here, they can foster an animal and see how their child responds or they can have a really good conversation and say in order to have this animal there’s some responsibility that needs to be taken,” said Cassie Sloan, volunteer coordinator for the Humane Society of the Black Hills.

Additionally, fostering programs can open space at shelters where there is an overflow of pets in need.