ROANOKE, Va. – This holiday season, the Roanoke Valley SPCA is reaching out to the community to ensure no shelter pet is left behind. The annual Home for the Holidays foster program is back but with a sense of urgency this year.
The program, which aims to give shelter animals a break from the facility and the chance to experience the warmth of a home during the holidays, is more critical than ever. The shelter must find temporary homes for its animals as quickly as possible.
Julie Rickmond, Marketing and Communications Director for the Roanoke Valley SPCA, explained, “To get pets out into loving homes, for usually about 2 weeks. This year it’s going to be substantially longer and that is because we are having our roof and HVAC system replaced.”
Starting December 20, the shelter will temporarily close its doors to replace its aging roof and HVAC system—repairs that are long overdue. The shelter is currently limited in space, with only 11 large dog kennels, three of which are out of use due to leaks in the building.
“We only have 11 big dog kennels anyways and 3 of those are out of use because when it rains, it actually rains inside our building, so it really limits our capacity for care,” Rickmond said.
The repairs are expected to last through mid-February, which means that the shelter will not have a safe environment for animals to stay. With power outages and a lack of heat expected during the renovations, the shelter is urgently seeking foster homes for its 30 current animals.
“Either they have to be adopted, or they have to go into a foster home, that’s just it, and we’d like to have backup fosters because if a family emergency comes up,” Rickmond said.
If animals remain in the shelter after the closure, staff members, who already foster pets on their own time, will have to step in to care for them, but really, that isn’t an option. Erin Dams, one of those staff members, fostered a cat and her three kittens during last year’s program.
“This is a nice way to test it, give the pet an opportunity to get out of the shelter and also give yourself an opportunity to see how well you go together,” Dams said.
The Home for the Holidays program is designed to make fostering simple and stress-free. The Roanoke Valley SPCA provides everything needed to care for a pet, including food, toys, leashes, and litter boxes, making it easy for anyone to help out.
For those interested in fostering, the SPCA encourages the community to step up and help provide a temporary home for pets in need during this critical time. Learn more here.