Volunteer emphasizes need for fosters for special needs pets

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VERONA, Va. (WHSV) - Year-round, animal shelters need fosters to take in animals outside of the shelter environment — and there is an even greater need for people willing to open their homes to pets with special needs.
Noah Early has fostered many of those animals. He said shelters can be loud and stressful, and for pets with underlying medical or behavioral challenges, that environment can make problems even worse.
Early said moving a pet from the shelter into a calm home helps them feel safer and more comfortable — and can improve both health and behavior.
“Beyond just giving them a low-stress environment, if you take in a special needs dog, you can help with behavioral issues — like if they get stressed or if they’re reactive — you can help with training to be less reactive," he said.
He’s seen that firsthand with Rachel, his special-needs foster dog who is blind. Early said blind dogs can struggle in a shelter because of constant noise and unfamiliar smells — and they’re often overlooked, even though he says they can thrive in a home.
“And no matter how much the staff wants to do for them, it’s still a stressful environment,” he said. “They need to get into a low-stress environment where they can heal — where they have somebody that can get them to appointments and make sure they get their medications on time.”
For animals with more serious medical needs, Early said the Friends of Staunton Augusta Waynesboro Animal Shelter helps by covering costs — including surgeries, pre-care, and after-care.
“If they come in and they have a leg issue that needs an amputation, Friends covers that. And the aftercare and the pre-care, because a lot of times you have to get them to be healthy before they can even undergo a surgery like that. So Friends of covers all that. And they’re very supportive,” he said.

This time of year brings another urgent need: newborn kittens and puppies that require round-the-clock care.
“But this time of year, they need people to take care of. They call it the bottle babies because if you have a Mama that gets. separated from the babies,” Early said. “Somebody needs to take care of the babies. And that means they need to be fed basically around the clock. Like every hour or two, they need to be cleaned. You need to make sure that they go potty. And that’s just not something that the shelter can do. So, that’s a really important need.”
Early said foster parents aren’t expected to handle those costs alone, and Friends also helps provide supplies to care for bottle babies.
“Friends helps for that as well because ... you’ve got to get in, make sure they’re healthy. If you need a scale to make sure that they’re gaining weight, they provide that in the formula, they provide that in the wipes to keep them clean, any of the supplies, so you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket,” he said.
Early said the support also extends to animals dealing with chronic health conditions — from diabetes to eye problems — where a calm, consistent home can make treatment easier and less stressful.
“I had one recently that had a cherry eye, which is an easy-to-treat condition, but you need somebody to do it. You need a clean environment, you need a calm environment, and fostering is ideal for that,” he said. “Get them out of the shelter, get them with somebody they trust, somebody they’re comfortable with. So if you’re trying to put, you know, drops in their eyes and it’s in a shelter situation, and they’re just scared, they’re fidgety, you’re not going to be able to get a drop in their eye. So again, fostering is great for that. Get them out of the shelter, get them in a calm situation, get them where they’re comfortable, and get them where they feel safe.”
For more information on how to get involved in fostering special needs pets, you can visit the Friends of Staunton Augusta Waynesboro Animal Shelter website.