Furkids, Petco To Celebrate Local Foster Volunteers Saturday

ROSWELL, GA — Furkids is celebrating national “Foster a Pet Month” with the Petco Foundation and Skechers’ charity footwear collection, BOBS from Skechers, by recognizing two of its local pet foster volunteers and encouraging the community to help save animal lives at its Be A Foster event on Saturday, June 29 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Petco in Roswell, 2340 Holcomb Bridge Rd, Roswell, GA 30076. Furkids will also have pets, including kittens, at Petco stores in Alpharetta, Buckhead, Roswell, Sandy Springs and Smyrna.

The Petco Foundation is recognizing a select group of dedicated individuals across the country as “Foster Mentors,” like Heather O’Callaghan, a foster volunteer for Furkids who has fostered many cats, from newborn, bottle-fed kittens, to entire litters of kittens, to special needs cats, including Thor, a paralyzed kitten, and Camden, a paralyzed adult. The Petco Foundation is also celebrating “First-Time Fosters” who have decided to help make a difference in animals’ lives by becoming a foster for the first time, like Lauren Borland, who decided to make a lifesaving difference by fostering kittens for Furkids.

Both volunteers will be recognized at the Be A Foster event on June 29. Furkids’ First-Time Fosters will receive a $200 Petco shopping spree to help get them started on their lifesaving journey, and both volunteers will receive BOBS from Skechers shoes to celebrate their lifesaving volunteer efforts.

“If less than two percent of pet-owning households in the U.S. fostered one pet a year, we could eliminate unnecessary euthanasia in animal shelters tomorrow,” said Susanne Kogut, president of the Petco Foundation. “We believe if more people knew about the lifesaving impact of fostering, and that it can be an easy and fun experience, more people would do it.”

Furkids is one of more than 600 animal welfare organizations across the country joining together at Petco locations across the country to celebrate the lifesaving impact of fostering pets. Furkids’ volunteers and staff will be on site to share information about fostering, demonstrate how to bottle-feed kittens, collect donated wish list items and provide information about adoption. The first four people to sign up to foster with Furkids will receive a free Litter Genie Pail.

“Foster homes are a vital part of saving lives for any organization. By fostering in a home, the animal gets the care, attention and love it needs to take the next step to adoption. Furkids has over 250 foster homes, and with 400+ cats and kittens in foster, we couldn’t save the lives we do without our foster parents,” said Samantha Shelton, Founder and CEO of Furkids.

The Be A Foster event is part of the Petco Foundation’s annual Be a Lifesaver campaign, which encourages everyone to help save animal lives by adopting, fostering, volunteering and donating. To create awareness and encourage more people to foster pets, the Petco Foundation has designated June as national “Foster a Pet Month,” and will share information and stories all month long to show how fostering pets is highly rewarding and makes a significant impact on helping the U.S. become a lifesaving nation. Atlanta community members can also make a difference by making a donation at Petco, at checkout or online, for pets in need.

To learn more about Furkids, visit Furkids.org, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Furkids’ newest video is available here.

For more on the Petco Foundation and ways to contribute to lifesaving causes, visit www.petcofoundation.org/lifesaver and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #BeALifesaver.