No home check for fostering?

twiglet24

Hi! This is my first time posting here so hope this makes sense. Basically, my daughter is renting an apartment with 3 other students, two of whom are vet nurse students. These girls have fostered cats and now puppies for a certain rescue, but as it is a first floor apartment and seems totally unsuitable (not to mention against the lease) , I am wondering if they do not even do a home check? These puppies were given to them at around 5 days old and are supposedly labxcollies and the plan is to keep them until they are 8 weeks old. This is a small apartment and seems ludicrous to me that it would pass a home check!
Sorry for the rant!

Dial Hard

Some rescues don't home-check all their fosterers as a) they're often so desperate to get the animals out of abusive situations/the pound and b) it's only ever a temporary arrangement.

It does sound like your daughter's situation isn't ideal but at the end of the day, it's not really any of your business. She may well end up learning a very expensive lesson if the floors get damaged from 8 weeks of puppy urine, though.

ShaShaBear

As said above, it might not seem ideal, but could be far better circumstances than them spending 5 days in the pound only to be put down.

I fostered in a small flat with no garden for months! Had a 12 week old lurcher, an 8 week old yorkie and a 2 year old GSD in the house and it was perfectly manageable if you took my experience with dogs into account. The only difference between my situation and a house one was that I had to walk the dogs WAY more often to avoid accidents and keep them entertained, but this was great because it got them socialized and integrated into normal pet life much quicker in time for their new homes.

They are, however, taking a risk with the landlord and potentially breaking the lease, but there isn't really a whole pile you can do about that except let them figure that out the hard way.

twiglet24

Thanks for the replies!
I know it's technically "none of my business"! I was just surprised when I know that home checks for adoption are so stringent! I understand that the need for fosterers is desperate, and if I didn't have a neurotic cat (and another cat and a dog) I'd consider it myself.
Unfortunately I'm afraid my daughter will learn an expensive lesson - about trust! The puppies were brought in whilst she was home for the weekend and neither she nor the fourth girl knew anything about it until after the fact! 😕

boomerang

We home check for our fosterers and they have to sign a fostering agreement. That's pretty standard practice so I'm surprised too.

Hildred

I'm fostering for a reputable rescue, a long term (possibly permanent) foster and no home check was carried out. Neither was a home check carried out for either of my two rescues, adopted at different times from two separate rescues! Now all three are happy and well cared for! I actually mentioned to the rescue I'm fostering for that I hadn't been home checked for my two adoptees and they didn't bat an eyelid or suggest one even at that late stage. The dogs did, however, do a meet and greet on neutral territory so maybe that was enough.

As far as your daughter is concerned, maybe she and her roommates could discuss the fostering and have a vote? Or explain the situation to the landlord? I imagine the veterinary nursing students wouldn't be too happy about a veto.
I wish them the best in resolving this issue and hope that it works out to the benefit of all involved, including the foster animals.

boomerang

God that's desperate. I know of one woman who was given a litter of kittens as a foster with no HC done - turned out to be a hoarder and rescue could not get the (un-neutered!) kittens back!

ShaShaBear

boomerang wrote: »

God that's desperate. I know of one woman who was given a litter of kittens as a foster with no HC done - turned out to be a hoarder and rescue could not get the (un-neutered!) kittens back!

Jeez! I know I wasn't home-checked for fostering Lindy, but in fairness to the rescue I did foster three dogs for them before in a different house and a cat and her kittens for another rescue close by so I think with me it was more of a case that they knew I was fine to look after the animals. I wasn't "home-checked" the first time when I fostered Denver, rather the lady called out with him and came in for a spot of tea to talk me through things. She probably got more from my body language with the dog than anything else!

kathleen37

I think it is more specialist care needed looking after 5 day old puppies, and if the girls are vet nurse students, they should be able to deal with giving this specialist care as it will be pretty much round the clock. If the girls are known to the charity, and the charity is confident in their care - a home check would probably not be necessary. You also wouldn't be walking puppies at 8 weeks, so I don't think there is an issue regarding them being in an apartment. Perhaps the puppies didn't come from a charity but from the vets where they work/are doing student placement?

Regarding the lease; I think that's down to all of them to work out with each other.

twiglet24

Thanks for the comments! I guess I can see where it wouldn't have seemed to be a problem placing the puppies since it was an emergency situation, and I'm sure if I was a 21 year old vet nurse student I'd have been keen to do it too!
It was definitely a rescue they got the puppies from and to be fair to them, one of the girls has decided she wants to keep one of the puppies and has been told that she wouldn't be able to because of the apartment situation. It seems she is going to try to get around it by pretending someone else is actually going to adopt it though...

Pac2015

boomerang wrote: »

We home check for our fosterers and they have to sign a fostering agreement. That's pretty standard practice so I'm surprised too.

Agree also on this we homecheck everybody and make them sign agreements too, apartments aren't an issue if they are adequate for the animals but the LL might not agree to dogs being there so we would also look for a letter from the LL agreeing to them being there.
This is the 2nd time I have heard of rescues not doing homechecks and I think it only causes problems.