I started as my shelter's Cat Foster Care Coordinator back at the end of October 2025, so I am still learning the nuances of the position. I have a few fosters who have been around for a long time that are frequently very frustrating to work with. Both of these fosters are so stubborn about their kittens having to stay at the shelter either just overnight or for a few days to get on the schedule for spay/neuter surgery. I've gotten reasons ranging from being concerned about contracting an illness in the short stay - a valid concern - to being worried a cat/kitten will revert to a shy and nervous demeanor similar to how they were when they first came into the shelter - yes that could happen, but with only staying in the shelter a few days they should bounce back fairly fast.
These fosters are constantly pushing to drop their kittens off in the morning for surgery and then picking them up that afternoon. Usually, this is fine and we like doing this because then they don't have to have a shelter stay. However, we've recently had several of our vets leave for other practices, so trying to schedule surgeries with the vets we still have is kind of a nightmare. When we have the cats/kittens in-house, if there is a last-minute opening for surgery, the vets can just grab them and get them done. Alternately, we have to schedule foster cats/kittens out ahead of time in order to do the drop-off/pick-up arrangement. However, this even has its problems. If for some reason the foster is unable to drop-off on the morning of surgery, these specific fosters will fight with me about rescheduling surgery - it's already hard to get an initial surgery day - or about not wanting to drop them off the evening before for just an overnight stay that they can be picked-up the next day after surgery - it is one night, they will be fine.
So, I'm looking for advice on how to get it through to them that their kittens might just have to have a short shelter stay in order to get spayed/neutered to be adoptable. I have ideas on how to do this, but they aren't what you'd call professional and would most likely do more harm than good. Also, just an general advice on how to get these specific fosters to understand that while, yes, I love that you want to see your kittens through all the way to adoption, sometimes I need a foster with a specific skill set for new kittens, but I can't use them because the foster is exceedingly stubborn about adoptable fosters returning to the shelter to be adopted out. (I also will be discussing a plan to address this with our cat department manager, but wanted to know if anyone else has experienced something similar and, if so, how it was handled.)
(Yes, I know I could just stop using these fosters, but one is connected to a board member and would make a lot of noise about that. Plus this foster has specific skill sets that are hard to find in a foster. The other foster would be easier to stop using, but would most likely also make some noise about it which would spread to other fosters and probably also end up not great.)
#FosterPrograms#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)------------------------------
Abby Billings
Cat Foster Care Coordinator
Faithful Friends Animal Society
DE
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