Foster homes

A foster home is a person who takes animals into their own home, with how many they can take and what kinds of animal they will have. Foster homes lists them all with where there is room; each home has a page for offering animals and recording who has stayed. Open it from the search palette by typing “Foster homes” (see Finding your way). Anyone who can See Animals can read the list and the pages. Adding a home, changing it, and offering or placing animals need Change on Animals.

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Foster homes and people

Every foster home belongs to one person in People, and a person can have only one foster home. Making someone a foster home also gives their person record the Foster role. On the person’s record, the Roles tab has a Fostering card showing the home’s status, how many of its spaces are filled, what it takes, and Open the foster home. A person marked as a foster with no home set up reads “Marked as a foster, but no foster home has been set up yet.” The home’s own page links back to the person under Contact, with their phone number.

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The numbers at the top

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The list

Columns chooses which columns show; Foster is always shown. Press a row to open the home. The filters beside the list are Status, and Room, whose one choice, Has space, keeps the active homes with a spot free. Views saves the filters you use most.

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Adding a foster home

What the home will take is set on its page.

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The foster home page

The band at the top shows the home’s animals against its capacity (“1 of 2 animals”), with how many spots are free, Over capacity, or, for a home that is not active, “Paused: not taking animals right now”.

• Change capacity sets how many animals the home can take, at least 1. It can be set lower than the animals already there; the home then reads over capacity until one leaves.
• The status menu beside it sets the home Active, Paused or Inactive. A paused or inactive home keeps its capacity but has no free spots and cannot be offered animals.

Takes lists the species the home takes (or Any) and has three boxes: Medical needs, Bottle babies and Behavioral cases. Ticking one saves it. Currently here lists the animals offered to the home or placed with it. History lists placements that have finished, with how they ended and how many days they lasted, and offers that were declined.

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Offering an animal

A placement starts as an offer. The home has to say yes before the animal takes a spot. On an Active home’s page, choose the animal under Offer an animal (Which animal?). It appears under Currently here as Offered, with the date.

• An offer does not take a spot, so a home can be offered more animals than it has room for.
• An animal can have only one offer or placement at a time. Offering it while it has one is refused, with a message saying which it has.

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Starting a placement

When the home says yes, press Confirm on the animal’s row. It becomes In foster, dated today. If the home is already full, confirming stops and says how many of its spots are taken. Press Place anyway to place the animal over capacity. When a placement starts:

• the foster appears on the animal’s Relationships tab;
• the animal appears on the home’s card on the Housing board;
• a workflow your rescue has set to start “when they start fostering an animal” starts on the foster’s person record.

Confirming does not change the animal’s status or its Location. Change those on the animal record if your rescue uses them for fostering. If the home says no, press Declined. The offer moves to History.

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Ending a placement

When the animal leaves the home, press Animal left on its row, choose Why did it end?, and press Complete. The reasons are Adopted, Returned to shelter, Transferred, Medical, Foster unavailable and Other. The placement ends today, the spot is free again, and the foster’s link on the animal’s Relationships tab is closed. A placement also ends by itself when the animal’s status changes to one marked Ends foster under Settings → Animal management → Animal statuses. It is recorded as ended because of Adopted when the new status is Adopted, and Other otherwise. As your statuses come, every status ends a foster placement except Waitlist, Pending Intake, Intake Processing, Foster - Available, Adoption Pending and Foster - Medical.