There are more animals than space in shelters across the country, a problem which has worsened this year and is particularly bad in areas where foreclosure rates are highest, says Gail Buchwald, senior vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

The Animal Defense League of Texas had a lot of foster families two years ago, says Emily Cotrell, the organization's hospital manager. Now they hardly have any, a particular problem during the spring and late summer "kitten seasons," Cotrell says.

"We're usually so inundated that we've got all our fosters full and we turn away animals all day," she says.

Puppies and kittens go into temporary foster care with a volunteer family until they are 6 to 8 weeks old and can be sterilized and put in kennels to await adoption, Cotrell says. Shelters also send injured, sick or terminally ill animals into foster homes. The Defense League gives foster families compensation for all supplies and veterinary bills, Cotrell says.

Abandoned animals become better adjusted and more adoptable if they go into foster homes, says Peggy Haynes, director of Pet Rescue North, a Jacksonville, shelter.

"It's so traumatic for them to go back to a shelter, and their personalities regress," she says. About 95% of animals coming into Pet Rescue North require foster care, but only about 50% receive it, Haynes says. The number of homeless animals coming into the shelter since January 2010 also has increased by 50% to 55% from previous years, she says.

The New York City ASPCA has 60 to 80 animals in foster care at any given time and another 300 to 400 in the shelter kennels, says Buchwald. The number of available foster homes in NYC actually has risen recently, which Buchwald attributes to a heightened interest in volunteering. The shelter's adoption rates, in contrast, have fallen this year for the first time in eight or nine years, she says.

Shirlee Campbell, 51, of Jacksonville, fosters dogs suffering from health issues that make them unadoptable.

"When they're in a shelter, they're left in a cage, and they do get depressed," Campbell says.

Nationwide, there are fewer homeless animals now than about 40 years ago, according to Merritt Clifton, editor in chief of Animal People magazine, which tracks shelter statistics. He attributes this to the rise of pet sterilization, responsible pet ownership and the start of animal fostering, which increased shelter holding capacity.

Gail Gillian, 54, of San Antonio has fostered over 300 kittens in the past three years. Last January, she took in seven kittens found in a carwash. They were so unaccustomed to human attention that at first they just hid under the bed. "By the end of the night — imagine this — seven kittens in your lap," Gillian says. "They'd try to do what I called the kitten pile."

www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2010-10-11-Fosterpets11_ST_N.htm

Oct. 11, 2010