Short answer, if it's in the best interest of the humans and the pet - not only do we allow it, we encourage it. We want these pets happy and loved. Is the best place for that the foster's house? Well then win win and everyone lives happily ever after.
Humans have emotions. We fall in love. Sometimes it's with a pet. If we trusted you enough to foster that animal, we have to trust you enough to forever love that animal.
Sure, that means we're down a foster. That's fine. Sure we want to save as many as possible - but given we're a small mostly self funded/donation funded rescue we don't have the means to have unlimited fosters anyway. And we're not about to rip an animal out of a home where it's loved and break a human's heart just to open up a foster.
Turning a foster over simply because the rescue wants an adoption fee won't ever be our style. Placing a foster in a new home can be difficult both on the pet and on the humans involved - sometimes it's worth that tough send off to give the animal the best life and save another. Sometimes it's not.
We don't budget adoption fees into our calculations. When we get one, awesome! But if an adopter foster fails and decides to keep an animal, we've already budgeted that way so we're prepared.
We do ask for total brutal honesty. Don't surprise us. If you're planning to foster fail or even looking to foster for the single purpose of finding the right fit and not having to return a pet to the shelter if it's not the right fit, just tell us so we know what we're working with.
For the entirety of the time the animal is under Mosh Pit's control, it needs to be going to our vets. It gets confusing when lots of vets are involved, all with different opinions. We use the vets we do for reasons. We trust them. They are generous enough to give us discounts. We ask our fosters to use them for the entire duration of the process. After you've adopted from us, you may go to any vet you like outside of a few exclusions detailed out in our adoption contract.
If you are in a foster to adopt situation, we know you want to get your pet set up at your vet asap. However repeating again, please continue to use our vets until the adoption has been finalized, the animal has been spayed/neutered and the full ownership transfer has been finalized.
We try to avoid foster to adopts. When a foster has an animal, ownership is clear - MPR "owns" that animal. The foster can't just adopt it out on their own at that point adopters have to go through a process where they complete our app and pay our adoption fee. As MPR doesn't do a lot of puppies, it's rare we find ourselves in a situation where an animal is adopted out prior to being spayed/neutered. It can happen. Spays have to be completed under the direction of our vet and under their medical advice.
We understand at times adopters prefer to wait for six months or whatever it might be to spay an animal, however that's not our process and unless our vet writes a specific letter detailing why a spay is being delayed for a medical reason, and a specific contract was signed detailing out the terms of such an arrangement it would not be allowed.
This isn't an easy topic. It's handled case by case. Short story is can you foster fail absolutely. As long as it's done according to procedure and in the best interest of the pet.
