Journey Home in Rifle has been finding homes for animals in the Roaring Fork Valley for years. Sometimes a home isn't forever, but that doesn't make it any less important. The Home for the Holidays Foster Program is giving people an opportunity to take a pet home over Christmas and give them a much needed break from the shelter. Journey Home's Hattison Rensberry says that this program has a few specific goals.
"Our Home for the Holidays Foster Program is an opportunity to really encourage people to try fostering. If they've done it before, great, but this is also an opportunity for people who've never done it to have a point of short term fostering that has really solid end dates and can give them an idea of What it's like to foster an animal and also to give animals some space out in a home during the holidays when they spend time in a shelter environment.
It can be difficult for them to really act like dogs and cats. So being able to see them in a home environment in a way that they normally would be functioning if they had been adopted can also give us a lot of insight into what their behavior looks like, uh, without being in kennels with us or around our staff that they know really well, really giving us a better idea of who they are so that we can find them the right home."
The holidays can be a challenging time for all of us, and there's no way to take a day off from keeping dozens of animals fed, clean, and happy. Rensberry says they are currently caring for 97 pets a day.
"So the idea of people taking one animal home for, you know, Even just a couple of days means that over a holiday, some of our staff can get home to their families earlier and can give them a little less time because even if our shelters not open for the holiday for people to come visit, we are still coming in and taking care of the animals and making sure that their needs are met.
And a lot of the animals that we get coming in, some of them are strays, some of them are surrenders. For whatever reason, we do have some people who, for some reason or another, can't have their animal anymore. And so especially around the holidays, that might be really hard for that animal."
Home for the Holidays has been running on and off for 10 years, and that's because bringing animals out of the shelter for even a short period of time can lead to them finding their forever home.
"We've been doing this for over 10 years now. One of the best ways. that animals can find homes, especially if a foster family falls in love with an animal but maybe can't keep them, is through your family and friends. There's this wonderful network that people have access to where if somebody comes and meets this animal that's just hanging out in your house for a week, Sometimes they fall in love with them, too."
Those who are interested in applying to volunteer and foster can contact Journey Home Animal Care Center's front desk or pay them a visit in person. More information can also be found at jhacc.org.