Every day, shelters juggle more animals than they have room for. When overflow starts, the solution often comes from a spare couch in someone’s home. Contrary to assumption, fostering isn’t limited to families with houses and fenced yards; in fact, many college students are quietly stepping into that role from their apartments.
Shea Manning, junior in FAA, has been fostering animals for about five years. She started her foster journey with her family through Ruby Whiskers Animal Rescue, a shelter in her hometown, Lemont, Illinois. Having fostered over 50 dogs and kittens throughout her childhood, Manning found it fitting to continue fostering through Moore’s Rescue Ranch while at school.
Manning said that, while her schedule is somewhat demanding at times, she finds joy in helping out when she can.
“Being able to find that time in your schedule, especially when it starts to get really busy, as a college student, is difficult,” Manning said. “But that’s why fostering is so easy, because you can say to the head of the foster, ‘I can only watch a dog for two weeks, but if you can give me a dog for two weeks, I can make sure this dog is not sitting in a crate 24/7 at the rescue.’”
Kim Dalluge, co-founder of the Moore’s Rescue Ranch and the Kitty Crib in Champaign, said that college students have been some of their best foster parents. Over the years, Dalluge has seen many foster students come to her facility, and currently has around five to seven regulars from the University.
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“We’ve had a lot of students foster for us, and we love it because the students are active, they’ve always got friends over, and the animal is getting lots of attention,” Dalluge said. “Several of them have been vet med students, which is great.”
Bella Chasen, junior in Media, did just that, convincing her roommates to start fostering together this past semester. Having fostered several dogs with her mother at home, Chasen was familiar with the process. She said that having roommates makes fostering much easier.
“We know we can’t do something forever, but we still have so much time on our hands, and we have the resources available to us to take care of a dog,” Chasen said. “Even if it’s just for a week and a half, to get them out and out of the shelter and adopted. It gives us a good feeling, it’s a good deed, and it doesn’t really take much effort for us.”
Beyond caring for the dog or cat, fosters are also responsible for taking them to adoption events and other advertising ventures. In exchange, shelters like Moore’s provide food, crates, toys and all other pet care essentials for free, making the fostering process affordable and convenient for students on a budget.
But fostering isn’t just an easy good deed. Dalluge said she finds that just having a pet at home to greet you can do wonders for boosting morale.
“I think that the foster program for our students is as big a help to them as it is to us,” Dalluge said. “This gives them that outlet, if maybe their dog is back home and they miss it so much, then they got a nice kind of replacement for a while. I think that’s very important for all the stress the students are under.”
Chasen shared a similar sentiment to Dalluge. Having grown up with pets, she said that coming home to a dog on her couch has been one of the biggest things she missed.
“Being at school has just been kind of depressing when you come home, and you don’t have an animal,” Chasen said. “We were kind of joking like, ‘We failed our exams this week, but we came home to a dog, so it wasn’t all that bad.’”
According to Dalluge, being in a foster home is also helpful for learning more about each dog’s personality. Since the dog gets to experience more while being in a home, shelters can better learn about the dog’s lifestyle preferences, quirks and any potential special needs.
In the end, fostering becomes a two-way street; the students get a piece of home, and the animals get a chance at one. For many students like Manning and Chasen, that temporary companionship can be one of the most grounding parts of college life.
“It makes you so happy, just getting to see a dog come from a crate at Animal Control to lying on your couch and hanging out with a bunch of people,” Manning said. “Dogs love college kids. They always will.”
