Students, faculty unleash love on foster animals

By Dalia Sandberg & Riya Nimmagadda

Freshman Avery DiNardo had been fostering Griff, a German shepherd about four years old, for a few hours when she discovered him in the bushes of a neighborhood park with a possum in his mouth. Griff emerged from the bushes and showed off the possum to DiNardo’s father, who, three minutes later, was finally able to pry the creature free. After escaping from the dog, the possum scurried away unharmed.

DiNardo described the experience as “slightly disturbing,” but she and her family laugh about it now. After two months, they helped get Griff adopted by an ex-military officer who worked with military German shepherds. The officer still sends them photos of Griff.

WHO'S A GOOD DOG?

Zhang messaged her and, in a few days, had a tiny black-and-white piglet in his home. Her coloring matched Mumu’s perfectly, and they often lay together on Mumu’s dog bed.

“When you take them home and you nurture them,” Zhang said, “their personalities are brought out in the best way.”

He also fostered a “giant pink pig” from Cypress, who had been a beloved pet but had outgrown her owner’s home. His love for his fostered pigs inspired him to create the Pig Club, an outlet for students to learn and converse about pigs.

Zhang relocated the pink pig to a ranch and the little black-and-white one to a new home. She is happy, Zhang said, to live in a comfortable, air-conditioned home rather than a muddy pen in Cleveland. Currently, Zhang has five turtles, ten beta fish and two dogs living in his house.

The Cat Smuggler

During the Covid-19 pandemic, animal shelters experienced a 70% increase in fostering, which cleared space in already overcrowded shelters.

DiNardo became interested in fostering during the pandemic, when she raised a litter of five kittens until they were ready to be adopted.

Since then, she has fostered kittens and multiple breeds of dogs with her sister.

“You get to feel like you’re making a difference while also having fun at the same time,” DiNardo said.

But that quarantine-inspired fostering craze seems to have ended: in mid-2021, some shelters reported that animals were sent back. In 2022, 7.6 million animals entered shelters around the country. Due to the overwhelming number of animals, 2.7 million were euthanized.

Fostering involves providing a temporary or permanent home to animals in shelters, like dogs, cats, birds and hamsters. Initially, the process of fostering usually includes interviews and meetings, but the more animals someone fosters, the less paperwork is involved.

“It’s really convenient because we can take animals in, foster them, and give them back to the shelter,” DiNardo said. “By helping the shelters, you are making a difference.” The city of Houston’s animal shelter and adoption facility, BARC, reported that the euthanasia rate increased from 4.9 to 14.9% in 2022. One of the most effective ways to reverse this trend is to foster animals, which opens space in shelters and prevents euthanization.

The Whole Barnyard

Two years ago, junior Evan Zhang found an “overweight and adorable” dog on BARC’s website. He went straight from school to PetSmart, where he purchased a cartful of dog supplies, then drove to the shelter.

He and his family loved the dog, christening her Mumu because her black and white spots reminded them of a cow, and made her their “forever pet.” Since then, his family has fostered 30 kittens, 25 dogs and 50 more miscellaneous animals, from ducklings to pigs.

A few days after taking his freshman year final exams, Zhang stumbled upon a woman’s Instagram post featuring her pigs. One piglet lived in a rarely cleaned concrete pen in the woman’s backyard in Cleveland, Texas. The woman was pregnant and had a toddler and could not properly care for all of her pigs.

A few years ago, Assistant Dean of Students Lori Fryman started dog-walking. Her sister, who was a regular volunteer at the Houston Humane Society, inspired her to get involved by occasionally walking shelter dogs. Yet she soon realized that the shelter needed much more than dog walkers. Knowing that a litter of puppies would be too much of an undertaking, she started fostering kittens.

With a few months of fostering experience under her belt, Fryman received a call from the Houston Humane Society that four kittens had been dropped off and needed immediate fostering. Fryman agreed to take them but was surprised when she received a litter of days-old mewlers needing round-the-clock care and attention.

The only possible solution, she figured, was to bring the kittens to school.

“It was a full-time thing,” she said.

For the next couple of weeks, Fryman smuggled the kittens to her office in a fruit box every morning. She thought she had gotten away with it — until one of her colleagues with a cat allergy started complaining.

Once they get to the stage where they find their legs and learn to play, it's just a lot of fun.

LORI FRYMAN

“Between classes, I would get out syringes and cotton balls and feed them,” Fryman said. “I was determined to keep them alive. Once they get to the stage where they find their legs and learn to play, it’s just a lot of fun.”

Now, she fosters a new litter every year.

The Pet Hotel

Ten years ago, biology teacher Paula Angus began fostering through the Homeless and Orphan Pet Endeavors, as well as caring for stray cats in her own neighborhood. During winter, Angus took in a cat and her four kittens until the weather became warmer.

Fostering was a win-win: she got to spend time with adorable animals and train them so that they were more likely to be adopted.

“You're helping both the animals and shelters out,” Angus said.

Through animal training courses and weekend events hosted by Homeless and Orphan Pet Endeavors, she has learned how to safely feed, nurture and care for outdoor animals. Though Angus no longer fosters cats, she still volunteers to “neuter, spay and feed outdoor cats.”

The purpose of fostering, Angus said, is to acclimate an animal to living indoors and interacting with people.

“It doesn’t take too much time, and it just makes the animals so much more adoptable,” she said.

The Dangers Of Fostering

Review adviser David Nathan is a self-professed cat person, but over the past 20 years, he has learned to love dogs, too. After owning a pair of Saint Bernards and then golden labradors, he finally adopted two cats. When his wife learned about a Saint Bernard wandering the streets in February, the couple agreed to foster him. They took him in, cleaned him up and named him Toblerone — Toby for short.

For two months, Toby responded well to training and medical treatment. The Nathans strongly considered permanent adoption.

You get to feel like you're making a difference while also having fun at the same time.

AVERY DINARDO

On the night of April 18, as Nathan walked into his bedroom after an evening softball game, Toby was lying on the floor, seemingly asleep. Possibly thinking that Nathan was an intruder, Toby jumped up and bit his leg.

After she took Toby into another room, Nathan’s wife Mandy rushed her husband to the emergency room, where he received 17 stitches. After a few days, the bite became infected, which led to a hospital stay where he received antibiotics. After a month, he is finally walking normally. “It could have been much worse,” he said. “Sometimes dogs have histories that you just can’t know.”

Because he could not be safely adopted, Toby had to be put down.

How To Help

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, more than 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized anually. The most common dogs found in shelters are pit bulls, German shepherds and chihuahuas, breeds that are stigmatized due to centuries-old superstitions that make it harder to find foster homes for them.

Some nearby shelters that offer foster pets are Furry Texans, HOPE, BARC, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Houston Humane Society. Even if you are unable to foster, you can still help out by donating food, toys or money. Shelters including Houston PetSet, Pet Connect and Save a Purrfect Cat Rescue are all looking for volunteers who are older than 16.

“You help a lot of people find the right animals,” said junior Evelyn Arouty, a volunteer at Houston’s SPCA. “I enjoy watching it because you see them bonding with the animal in the end.”