How a few weeks of caring for a rescue cat builds soft skills that lasts a lifetime in children.
By Deborah Felin Magaldi, Director, Helen Sanders CatPAWS
After twenty years in cat rescue and fostering, I've watched plenty of families discover that fostering a kitten can build empathy and responsibility in kids like nothing else quite does. My answer to whether it's a good way to raise kind, capable kids is “yes,” with one important note: fostering is a commitment the parents take on, not the children. Kids can be wonderfully involved and can help in age-appropriate ways, but the responsibility for a foster animal's care has to sit with the adult in the house.
I've helped run Helen Sanders CatPAWS for sixteen years, and plenty of families have come through our foster program in that time. The part that stays with me is what happens to the kids along the way.
Caring for something smaller than you
There's a specific kind of confidence a child gets from being trusted with a life, even in a helper's role. Feeding a kitten on a schedule, keeping its space clean, noticing when it isn't eating and telling a grown-up right away; these are jobs a parent manages, but a child can take part in age-appropriate pieces of, like helping measure food, watching for signs something's wrong, or keeping a space tidy under supervision. These are real tasks with real stakes, and children feel the weight of that, even as helpers. It's a good weight. A kid who learns that a small creature depends on their family starts to understand empathy in a way no lecture can teach.
They also learn that caring isn't always cute. Some of the cats we take in are sick or frightened, and a child who sits quietly beside a nervous animal is practicing patience they'll carry for the rest of their life.
What parents should know before you start
Fostering as a family is wonderful, but go in clear-eyed. A few things I tell every parent:
● Fostering is the parent's responsibility, not the child's. Kids can help and be involved every step of the way, but Helen Sanders CatPAWS approves the foster placement to the adult in the household, who is accountable for the animal's day-to-day care.
● Not all fostering looks the same. Bottle-feeding newborn kittens is an enormous commitment, every few hours, around the clock. An adult or senior cat mostly needs food, water, a clean litter box, and a calm room.
● Some cats arrive with illnesses or injuries and need nursing. It isn't all playtime, and that's an honest conversation to have with your kids first. Sometimes cats and kittens do not survive.
● Kids need supervision around any animal. The animal also needs to have available a quiet retreat of its own.
● The goal is to say goodbye. That part is hard, and it's also one of the most valuable lessons a child can get: that you can love something, do right by it, and then let it go to a home of its own.
Why families matter most in kitten season
Every spring and summer, shelters fill faster than they can keep up. Newborn kittens are the most fragile animals who land there, and the ones with the least time. A kitten with no mother and no foster home often doesn't make it out, and that is almost always preventable. Foster homes are the one thing that turns those odds around. A family that opens a spare room for a few weeks is doing frontline, lifesaving work, and giving their children a front-row seat to it.
Parents often want to know what fostering actually involves and whether it costs them anything, rightfully. At Helen Sanders CatPAWS, we cover the supplies, the food, and the veterinary care, including medication and appointments, so a foster family's real job is love and attention. Experienced fosters mentor new ones through the tricky parts. We ask that fosters live in the Seal Beach area and have reliable transportation for vet visits and adoption events, and the commitment can be as short as a few weeks.
If your family wants to start, visit helensanderscatpaws.com, open Join Our Team, and click Foster.
A few weeks of your life can mean a kitten gets to have one. For a child, it can mean a great deal more.
About the Author
Deborah Felin Magaldi is the Director of Helen Sanders CatPAWS, a nonprofit cat rescue and advocacy organization she has led for 16 years. She began fostering more than 20 years ago and never stopped. Learn more at helensanderscatpaws.com.
