Emily Verreault gives Tucker a treat Monday afternoon after Greater Androscoggin Humane Society staff member John Craft, right, loaded the lab/pit bull mix into her vehicle at the Lewiston shelter. She and her boyfriend, Liam Stokes, left, are fostering Tucker for a week and hope to eventually adopt him to keep their dog Zoey company. They adopted Zoey nine years ago from the shelter. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
LEWISTON — It’s not only humans who get a holiday break from the daily grind. For the third year in a row, the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society’s Holiday Foster program provides resident animals — dogs, cats and bunnies — with a weeklong respite from what can be a noisy, chaotic, stressful shelter environment.
Going home to celebrate with a foster family can be like a week away at summer camp, only this one elevated with belly rubs, turkey bites and all the trimmings.
Katie Lisnik, the animal shelter’s executive director, said the list of holiday fosters includes some of the shelter’s current, year-round fosters and is “also open to new people to try fostering at a fun time to see if it works for them.”
Auburn resident Michelle Rousseau, a referral specialist for Maine Medical Partners Neurology in Scarborough, picked up little Chicken Wing — named for the way her arms look when she crouches down — on Monday. She and children Lillian Arel, 15, and twins Ruby and Charles Arel, 12, have a cat and are first-time fosters, excited about hosting their feline guest.
“She’s about a year old, short-haired, black, very petite, with uniquely round yellow eyes,” Rousseau said. “Chicken Wing is so friendly she drools because she’s purring so much. We really lucked out. We could have gotten a foster who hissed at us!”
Emily Verreault, back left, looks at Tucker, a lab/pit bull mix, Monday afternoon in the back of her vehicle at the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston. She and her boyfriend, Liam Stoke, are fostering Tucker for a week and hope to eventually adopt him to keep their dog Zoey, back right, company. They adopted Zoey nine years ago from the Lewiston shelter. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
To that end, Lisnik said that in addition to providing a warm, loving, temporary home for a shelter animal, important feedback about the pet’s personality, energy level and other factors is obtained from both year-round and holiday fosters. In securing a permanent home, this information helps ensure the animal can be matched with the right owner to lower the odds of being returned. “Matchmaking is important,” Lisnik said. “A pet needs to fit with the family’s home and lifestyle.”
For the Holiday Foster program, animals were picked up Monday and Tuesday during normal shelter hours and during a brief window of time Wednesday, when the shelter is normally closed. They will be returned Monday unless the family decides to adopt.
The shelter likes to count its “foster fails” — where the family adopts outright from the guest’s stay with them — among its most successful programs.
In 2022, about 30 dogs, cats and bunnies went home with Holiday Foster families, out of which 12 were adopted. Even if the outcome of a temporary stay does not result in immediate adoption, both animal and family benefit from quality time together.
Michele Rousseau, middle, holds her foster cat Chicken Wing surrounded by her children Wednesday night at their home in Auburn. From left to right are Charles Arel, Rousseau, Lillian Arel and Ruby Arel. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Due to the success of the Holiday Foster program, the organization is considering offering it over Christmas as well, though a final decision has not been made. Christmas Day is on a Monday so the pickup and return dates, in light of shelter hours, can become tricky to navigate, Lisnik said, urging prospective fosters to check in through Facebook or the website for updates.
If the Christmas Foster program gets underway, people can apply at gahumane.org.
Rousseau said, “Though Chicken Wing has a friendly personality to begin with, the opportunity to be held, loved and socialized with us this week will make her more easily adoptable.”
Rousseau is also going to post photos on her Facebook page to help the shelter find the right candidate. “Whoever gets her is going to get a truly loving, happy cat. We are so grateful to be a part of it,” she said.
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