I picked up these three cute foster kittens yesterday, just in time for them to strut their stuff for Fuzzy Friday.

Wondering how I’m so lucky as to hang out with these 3 cuties for the next week and a half? I volunteer as a foster parent for my local SPCA. Fosters take in animals from shelters for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the animals are too young to be adopted. Sometimes the animal needs to be socialized with humans so it will adapt well once it’s adopted. Sometimes the animal is under the weather and needs some medicine and TLC (plus it’s best to keep them away from the other shelter critters so everyone doesn’t get sick). Sometimes the shelters get too crowded and they reach out to fosters so they have some place to put some of their animals until more get adopted. If you’d like to get involved, contact the local animal rescues in your area and see if they have a fostering program.

A few other ways to help the critters:

1. Next time you’re considering a pet, try to adopt a rescue animal. Shelters are a great way to meet a new pet. If you want a specific breed or age, check out PetFinder.com. They deal with shelters and breed specific rescues across the US and Canada. You can search for nearly any kind of pet on this website and they’ll help you find an animal that meets your preferences and needs rescuing. If you have friends or family looking for a new pet, let them know about these options too.

2. Volunteer at an animal rescue. Even if you can’t foster a pet, you can still donate your time to an animal charity. They need dog walkers, kitty cuddlers, fund raisers, data entry help, graphic designers, administrative help, event coordinators, just about everything you can imagine.

3. Donate your cash. Most animal rescue organizations have made donating money pretty easy. You can donate online, set up a recurring monthly donation, include an animal rescue in your will.

4. Visit the Animal Rescue Site daily. Your clicks help them raise funds for the animals.

You could also buy your next tee here at Ex-Boyfriend. We donate a portion of our revenue to animal rescues. We also do special events throughout the year where we donate even more. Last spring we donated 100% of our key chain sales revenue and raised over $1300 in about a month!