Fostering Pets in an Apartment

July 21, 2013 11:24 AM

I want to foster a shelter animal...but there are snowflake details and questions...

I live in a pet-friendly apartment, but it does charge pet rent per pet. I have one dog currently, and would love to volunteer to foster a second dog or kitten. To those of you who are / have been in a similar living situation and fostered, how did you do it? Did you pay pet rent just while fostering? Did you find the process too difficult to manage in this type of living situation?

posted by mingodingo to Pets & Animals (5 answers total)

I think this depends very much on your landlord. I ended up with a second cat for a while (though not in a formal fostering arrangement) and my landlord (which is actually a company, so the people in the office) said "If it looks like you'll have him for a while, we'll make it official, but don't worry about it for a few weeks." Pet rent here is pretty nominal, though, which I think contributed to the laissez faire attitude.
posted by hoyland at 11:31 AM on July 21, 2013

Fostering -- yay and thank you!

If your landlord/property management won't waive an additional pet fee for a foster (some will for a temporary situation) -- check for that first -- do ask the shelter/adoption group if it's among the costs they can cover. The groups I know try to cover nearly all incidental costs for fostering. Even if the group doesn't or can't, fostering is one of the best possible things you can do to help a companion animal into a good home. Pretty sure you can find a way to do this easily -- and thank you again!
posted by vers at 11:47 AM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think if you're planning on having another animal more often than not, you should be upfront about it with your landlord.

My stepmother fosters shelter dogs, and not only do the foster situations often drag on for months, she's been known to gradually transition into adopting the dogs herself if she finds that she has a strong bond with it and it's a dog that might be more difficult to find a permanent home for. So I would say that if you anticipate something like that, you should definitely be open about it and willing to add another pet fee to your rent.

If you were thinking more like "I take in animals for a couple weeks every now and again", then, I don't know, you could probably float by. Especially if it's a cat and nobody's going to see it, anyway.
posted by Sara C. at 11:48 AM on July 21, 2013

Talk to your landlord/building manager. When I and my neighbor fostered we had the manager's approval, paid the extra rent for the months we had them. My manager was appreciative that we were above the board on it, and she even stopped collecting the extra rent when it was just for a month out of the year. (My neighbor worked at the SPCA and was fostering continuously. Because she was good about it she was allowed to go over the building rule of no more than two pets.)

Compared to what could happen if you your landlord catches you with an unauthorized pet...
posted by Ookseer at 6:13 PM on July 21, 2013

We're going to be renting from an apartment complex and I too was sort of puzzled by the whole "pet rent' thing. I'd be up front, just go to the office and explain what you're considering doing. Our complex is pretty cool, they waived some of the pet deposit for our two kitties.

Honesty is the best policy here.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:45 AM on July 22, 2013