On July 4th Philadoptables took our annual stroll though Olde City in the Welcome America 4th of July parade! We had the honor of carrying the Betsy Ross flag. Volunteers were joined by 4 canine ambassadors and a wonderful time was had by all! Events like this are important because a whole new audience gets to see that Philly’s animal control shelter has some great dogs (and kitties) for adoption!

Foster A Shelter Animal

Fostering provides a second chance for many dogs and cats to find a loving home. Foster care volunteers provide temporary care for kittens, puppies, dogs and cats. Some animals may only need a home for days, while others may need several months of care. By offering your time, energy, and home to an animal in need, you prepare an animal for adoption into a permanent home as well as prevent overcrowding in the Philadelphia City Animal Shelter.

The staff at the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Team will match potential foster parents with dogs and cats that are a fit with the foster’s schedule and the needs of the animal. If you work from home, maybe a kitten or puppy would be suitable. If you work long hours outside of the home, perhaps a senior dog or cat would find themselves temporarily happy under the safe shelter of your home. Whatever the lifestyle, there is sure to be a dog or cat that would be a good foster match for you.

Why are fosters needed?
1. Shelter overcrowding. Fosters free up kennel space to make room for incoming animals. Overcrowding, without a network of fosters providing additional shelter options, results in lower save rates.

2. Injury and illness. Many animals coming into the shelter may need special care to recover for injuries or illness before being able to go into an adoptable home or rescue. All medication and medical care is provided free of charge by animal control.

3. Extremely young kitten or puppies. These animals may not yet be weaned and require special care and feeding, which shelter staff may not be able to adequately provide.

Without fosters, Philadelphia’s animal control save rates drastically drop.

Why should I become a foster parent?
We believe that the abandoned and abused animals that enter our shelter deserve to have the best possible chance at finding a loving, permanent home. A foster parent has one of the most important jobs at the shelter. Foster parents allow our animals to receive the proper care and attention they deserve as they wait for adoption. As a foster parent you’ll not only save the lives of animals in your care, but you’ll give other animals coming into the shelter who may not need the same level of medical attention, a space on our adoption floor to find their own loving homes. If those aren’t enough reasons to become a foster parent, consider these:

• Foster animals are temporary companions offering their love freely.
• You’ll be helping to socialize a shelter animal so they become more adoptable and better companions.
• You can put that spare bedroom to good use.
• You’ll delight at the smiles on the faces of the family that adopts your foster animal and possibly make new friends along the way.
• Fostering helps you explore many different breeds of dogs and cats to help you decide which traits you’d like in your next companion animal.
• If for some reason you can’t keep a full-time companion animal, fostering for short time periods is an ideal solution.
• You’ll know that you’re making a huge difference in the lives of your fosters.

If you are interested in becoming an active foster, please contact Marta Skuza at marta@philadoptables.org. Check out some of the animals available for foster care on our Facebook page here – it is updated daily!

Philadoptables is honored once again to be asked to march in Philly’s July 4th parade! If we have 10 or more people we can also have adoptables dogs join us! Volunteers and friends, please sign up- must be 18 and over. Time commitment is approx 9:30-12:30- only three hours! To join in the fun email diana@philadoptables.org

Register to run in the Superhero themed Super Run

choose a 1k or 5k- Saturday, June 21, Philly Navy Yard. Choose Philadoptables as the non-profit you want to raise money for and help Philly’s homeless cats and dogs!

Raise Money for Philadoptables while participating in the Super Run by simply using the  Walking Your Dog. Go to WoofTrax.com to learn more. Remember to choose Philadoptables as your organization to donate.

Raise Money for Philadoptbles every time time you walk your dog.

For the 3rd year in a row Philadoptables has been part of the 6abc Dunkin Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We believe in helping the community as much as we can, the homeless animals in Philadelphia’s animal control shelter ACCT Philly are our focus, but we also want to be a part of the City of Philadelphia, and this is our way of giving back. There’s nothing exciting about getting up early in the morning, whether it’s to help blow up the balloons, or whether it’s to arrive a little bit later and line up to walk in the parade as a balloon handler. What is exciting, is to see the looks on the kids faces as they see the big balloons, they are filled with excitement. It’s so much fun to see them as they wait for the big man in the red suit to arrive.  We hear “spin it, spin it” all along the route. Our founder and president, Michelle was featured on the parade commercials leading up to the parade and we were all asked “Was that Michelle on TV?”  many times!  Three members of our board walked in the parade,  Michelle, John and Marta.