Urgent Care - Keeping More Families Together

Written by: Larisa Nagelberg, PMP

We believe our pets are our family. The power of the human-animal bond is gaining wider appreciation, and there is accumulating evidence to support how our pets improve our health and wellbeing.

This bond is vulnerable when we consider the challenges that we face in our daily lives. Housing, cost of living, our physical and mental health, and interpersonal relationships can all present challenges to our wellbeing. For example, a 2022 study conducted by the Financial Wellbeing Index from LifeWorks revealed that 27% of working Canadians spend everything they make each time they get paid, or more, leaving little room for emergencies, or rainy days. We also know Toronto has the highest rate of unaffordable housing across Canada. Additionally, COVID-19 led way to a nefarious ‘Shadow Pandemic’ of domestic violence and left many survivors with the difficult choice of finding safety or caring for their pets.

Many of us are just one crisis or setback away from not being able to care for our four-legged family members. For those who are already experiencing economic disparities or social divides, a lack of resources or support in crisis may leave them with the difficult decision to relinquish their pet.

The Urgent Care Program provides animal foster care for pet parents temporarily unable to care for them. This includes individuals who are facing housing instability, seeking medical treatment, or fleeing violence. By providing fostering to families experiencing an acute crisis, we are gifted with the opportunity to see the reciprocal wellbeing of caring for our community, individuals, and their pets. We are charged with not only putting animals first, but their caregivers as well.

By employing a non-judgmental approach and working from a strength-based framework, we create meaningful and trusting collaborative relationships with our pet parents. We strive to understand the challenges our specific community faces, and in doing so, we can bring to life the interconnectivity between humans, animals, and our environment in new ways. We also recognize that the best place for every pet is in a loving home. The Urgent Care program brazenly meets these challenges, through safeguarding the human-animal bond in times of crisis and ensuring that animals are kept in a loving foster home while owners gain stability and safety once again.

A Case for Urgent Care

Harper’s* family recently moved to Canada and were living in a car. They were in a difficult situation and needed someone to temporarily care for their pets while they took some time to settle into a new country. A friend told them about our Urgent Care program, and they immediately reached out for help.

Their incredibly sweet cats were placed into a foster home, but their stay wasn’t very long. After one month Harper’s family found pet friendly housing and they were reunited with their cats.

“The Urgent Care program was helpful in multiple ways. They went above and beyond to try and help as quickly as possible. Our two cats were also able to stay together in foster care and I know that it made the process much easier for them,” shares Harper.

“The pictures that they sent of our cats made us feel safe. We also had constant communication that made it easier and gave us some peace of mind. It was a really tough time for us, and we don’t know what we would have done without this program.”

*Due to the sensitivity of the Urgent Care Foster program, these names have been changed.

About Larisa Nagelberg

Division Manager, Community Sheltering & Animal Transport Larisa has worked at Toronto Humane Society for the past 7 years in a number of different capacities. She started in Animal Care, and since has worked in Adoptions, Foster, and Transport.

With a passion for the Human-Animal Bond, Larisa began developing the Urgent Care program in 2019 offering temporary animal housing to individuals experiencing crisis and was honored with the “Outstanding Community Support” award from one of our cherished Urgent Care partner agencies.