The 3-3-3 Rule

Have you heard of the 3-3-3 rule? It works for animal fostering and adopting— basically anytime you’re bringing a pet into your home. ⠀
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Fostering is amazing, but it doesn’t mean that it’s easy. It means that you are helping an animal on its way to its forever home. It also means that you may end up cleaning some messes in your home. And losing some sleep. ⠀
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But, it likely means that you’ll have a wonderful experience, bonding with an animal whose life you will change forever.⠀
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Back to the 3-3-3 rule. It’s a good guideline, although each animal is an individual and may require different amounts of time.

3 Days to decompress after coming home from the animal shelter or animal rescue. Transitioning environments is a big deal!

3 Weeks to figure out routines! First, learning yours, and then establishing theirs! A little tip here: try to outline that routine for them! It’s not fair if you’re doing something different all the time. Your foster or new pet needs to know what to expect. And yes, that silent dog may turn out to have a bark in her, after all!⠀And then, in some cases, you may have a foster for longer than 3 weeks. Completely normal.

3 Months to feel at home. At this point is where you really bond, and where your (foster) pet’s personality will blossom.

Had you heard of the 3-3-3 rule before? Have you experienced it? So, what got me thinking about this?

That adorable puppy in the picture is named Subi, and she is being fostered by my friends. She will soon be available for adoption through Pets in Need, here in the Bay Area. I had a ton of fun playing with her in my yard. She showed off both her lap cuddling, zoomies, and modeling skills all in the space of just a couple hours. Whoever adopts Subi will be very lucky! ⠀

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P.S. Foster Mama Laura is wearing our Be Good, Do Good tee, your new favorite animal rescue t-shirt!