ASPCA<\/a> estimates roughly 3.2 million cats enter U.S. shelters each year, and the seasonal surge makes foster homes essential in preventing overcrowding.<\/p>\nFostering, Lang says, doesn\u2019t require volunteers to provide supplies out of pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you’re a foster, we set you out the door with everything that you need,\u201d Lang said. \u201cFood, litter, litter boxes, toys \u2014 you don\u2019t need to buy anything. We do all of that for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most foster families take home several kittens at once, giving them space to grow, socialize and adjust to a home environment before they\u2019re ready for adoption.<\/p>\n
Lang says the shelter is also available to help if someone comes across a litter outdoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cReach out to us,\u201d he said. \u201cRather than giving them away or trying to sell them, please contact us. That is what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelter staff also encourage foster families to resist the understandable urge to adopt the kittens they care for. While \u201cfoster fails\u201d are common, Lang says each adoption reduces the number of available foster homes \u2014 and with so many kittens arriving, the program depends on volunteers staying active.<\/p>\n
The Erie Humane Society says foster applications are available through the shelter, and volunteers are needed throughout kitten season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With kitten season underway, the Erie Humane Society is urging more foster families to step in as shelters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5922,89971,136,138,8437,137,91900,15066,77324,91901,2404],"class_list":["post-209299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-animal-shelter","tag-cat-adoption","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-humane-society","tag-erie-news","tag-foster-family","tag-fostering","tag-kitten-season","tag-shelter-overcrowding","tag-volunteer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}