If you’re considering adopting a kitten or would really love a feline family friend but can’t make the commitment, fostering could be a great idea for you! Fostering a kitten is a great way to test your pet parenting abilities or fulfill a desire to be a pet owner while working around your schedule and finances. So before you go straight to pet adoption, consider these five reasons to foster a kitten…

1. What is more adorable than a kitten?!

You’ve seen all the YouTube videos of cute cuddly kittens learning how to walk, jump, and pounce… (we all have, we’ll happily admit it)! Wouldn’t it be great if you had a kitten to go home to that will bounce around and play with your shoe laces with their cute little fluffy paws? When you foster a kitten you get all the snuggly, fluffy, big blue-eyed benefits of having a kitten without the 15+ year commitment.

2. Pass the ‘Test’!

Fostering a kitten is a great way to see if you’re ready for the full-on commitment of cat ownership. Towards the end of the foster period your foster kitten will naturally start exploring more, playing much more and start exhibiting more of an adult cat personality. This period of time can last for about a year and it can be one of the more difficult times in a cat owner’s relationship. If you have the children who plead that they will take really good care of the kitten if they get one… this is a great way to show them how much work it actually takes to care for another living being. However, if you go down this path, be sure that you advise your children of the non-permanent situation and that they are an appropriate age to understand this – or there may be tears!

3. Save a Life

Young kittens need to be fostered until they’re about 8 weeks old and at a healthy weight. This is because of the volume of germs they could be exposed to in an animal shelter environment. If they’re under a certain age or weight their chances of contracting an illness is greater. By fostering a kitten you’re ensuring someone’s future pet gets the proper nutrition, nurturing, and medical care needed to be a healthy cat for life.

4. Don’t Stretch the Finances

If you really want a kitten but aren’t sure if you can afford to give them the best care they need and deserve, fostering is a great way to experience having a pet without the long term financial commitment. Vaccinations, medications, emergency care and other unforeseen expenses need to be planned for when taking on a kitty yourself. If you’re not quite financially stable enough to accommodate the possibility of having to deal with an emergency situation, you should consider fostering a kitten instead. The shelter should take care of most or all medical needs for the kitten you’re fostering and often they provide the food, bits & bobs you need as well. You’ll still need to have things like kitty litter and cat toys, but for the most part it’s less expensive than being personally financially responsible.

5. Short Term

The idea that adopting a kitten or cat could require up to a 20-year commitment is more than a little daunting for some people. Two decades is a long time; most people don’t even know where they’ll be in 5 or 10 years! Therefore, if you’re considering relocating in a year or so, having a baby, changing career paths, or any other life altering decisions, it may be reason enough to put adoption on hold and foster a kitten instead.

As you can see, fostering a kitten allows you to have the best of both worlds – you can have a cute kitten without as much of the responsibilities or costs that are associated with being a long-term pet parent. So what are you waiting for? Head down to your local shelter or SPCA and ask them for more information about kitten fostering. They’d LOVE to hear from you.