Hi Katie, I am also a foster coordinator. We had a really tough year for kittens in 2022. A very large humane agent case where several nursing moms with their tiny kittens were pulled. The momma cats were all older cats (8+ years) and there was so much inbreeding and infection and congenital problems. We sent 32 kittens to foster and only about 13 survived. This was all due to the above mentioned problems and NOTHING that our fosters were doing. This was also within my first month of becoming the foster coordinator. Honestly, I think that both myself and my fosters are still slightly traumatized by the experience. This was the first time anything on this scale had occurred for us and so we had no protocols or anything in place. I cried with my fosters as I talked to them over the phone, I cried with them as they brought each little one back to the shelter.
Once the ordeal was over, our veterinarian wrote a very lovely letter to the foster families explaining that none of this was their fault and nothing could have prevented it. She also explained some of the reasons that they found when they did the necropsy on the babies and the results of all of the tests that we had sent out to IDEXX. I then sent this letter out to all of the families that had taken in these momma cats and their litters. I think this helped the families a lot. I also ordered some cat sympathy cards from amazon. Every member of our staff signed them, we placed a copy of the rainbow bridge poem inside, and then these were mailed out to the families. We also of course understood that some of those families needed time to grieve before deciding if they wanted to continue fostering. I also found a wonderful video from the Kitten Lady where she talks about the steps of grieving the loss of a foster kitten. We have a private Facebook page for our fosters and this video is always pinned to the top in the featured section so it is easily accessible at all times. Once the entire ordeal was over, we invited all those foster families to the shelter for a small dinner that we provided. This allowed them to talk and share their experiences and grieve together.
I am not sure if this was the type of information that you were looking for, but I wanted to share my experience in case it helps others. Here is the link to the Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7B34AQVWNc
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Erin Robinson
Foster Coordinator
Licking County Humane Society
OH
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-12-2023 09:11 AM
From: Katie Pauli
Subject: Grief Counseling or Education for Foster Coordinator
Hi guys! I am the foster coordinator for an animal shelter in Billings, MT. My director wanted me to look into grief counseling classes or grief resources to see if I can learn some different ways to be there for my fosters but not take their grief on as my own.
Do you know of any resources or have any suggestions?
Thank you for your help!
#FosterPrograms
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Katie Pauli
Foster Coordinator
Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter
MT
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