Orange County Animal Services asks the community for fostering help

Orange County Animal Services are asking the community to help in fostering local kittens who need around the clock care.

Orange County Animal Services is the only open admission shelter in Orange County and is a “progressive animal-welfare focused organization that enforces the Orange County Code to protect both citizens and animals,” according to its website.

Amy Sullivan, program coordinator of foster care and adoptions for OCAS, who lives in Winter Garden, said they are most in need of foster parents for orphaned kittens and bottle babies who have a decreased chance of survival and do not thrive in a shelter environment.

“We get so many small kittens who aren’t fully eating on their own, and really have a need for foster parents who can bottle feed,” Sullivan said. “These kittens are too small and fragile to remain at the shelter since we don’t have staff here overnight and need to find foster placement the same day as arrival.”

OCAS said that they are looking for people who have experience caring for cats and kittens so that the process of fostering can be sped up and the cats can go to the best home possible.

Those who wish to become foster parents must attend an orientation session which is available online here. OCAS also requires applicants to be 18 years of age or older, reside in Orange County and to take a hands-on training course.

“The more foster parents that we have, the more underage kittens that we can continue to help, which is a big goal of ours,” Sullivan said. “I foster a lot myself, and it’s really rewarding to watch these kittens go from tiny and helpless, to seeing them thrive and find their forever homes, and to know that I helped save a life by providing extra care when they needed it the most. It’s just few weeks of my time that I’m giving up, but it allows these kittens to have the rest of their lives ahead of them because of it, so it’s very worthwhile to me. I think anyone who fosters feels the same way.”