Kitten season is just around the corner, and we know how overwhelming it can be. Which is why we created this kitten fostering PSA just for you!

Hamilton Pug and his brother Rufus have been busy this past year running a #pugbnb for shelter kittens and cats. They wanted to show the world that fostering is fun and rewarding, and that yes, dogs and cats can get along! Being rescue dogs themselves, Hamilton and Rufus can attest to the importance of foster homes. 

No matter how great a shelter is, a home environment is still ideal for most animals, especially vulnerable kittens. It allows the pet to decompress in a safe and loving environment, and allows their true personalities to shine. This information is invaluable when it comes to adoption time.

The pugs also want people to know that you don’t need a lot of room to foster. They share a small 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment with their humans in New York City and manage to make it work. There is some juggling, but if they can do it, so can you!

“I did wonder how my boys would take to having felines in the house. Kittens are pretty fearless and get over it pretty quickly,” says Hamilton and Rufus’s owner, Wendy Frink (who also happens to be on the Maddie’s Fund^® marketing team). “We keep them separated for a couple of days so they can get used to each others’ sounds and smells. There have been some bops on the head, a little hissing and barking, but they’ve gotten along quite well. We really enjoy fostering.”

We encourage you to share this with your community to help with your own foster recruitment. It’s our hope that once people see this, they will be intrigued by fostering and sign up. And if kittens aren’t their thing, there are always dogs, puppies and cats!