“When a cat feels safe and loved, they blossom.” For SAFE Haven volunteer Sparky MacMillan, those words are more than a belief. He’s witnessed them firsthand through years of opening his home and heart to cats who need extra care.

Sparky has been volunteering with SAFE Haven since October 1994. Over the years, he’s become a dedicated hospice foster, providing a loving home for cats with serious medical conditions a loving home they might otherwise spend their remaining time in a shelter.

His journey into hospice fostering began with a simple ask from the SAFE Haven team. “I had the home, the means, the skill set (I’ve worked with veterinary clinics part-time for decades), and it seemed the least I could do.”

The Cats Who Started It All

Sparky’s first hospice foster was Zanna, a sweet black cat rescued from a hoarding situation. She was among several cats SAFE Haven took in after an ASPCA rescue operation in 2016. While other cats found adoptive homes, Zanna’s medical needs were more complicated. She required extensive dental work, but a heart condition made anesthesia risky. After receiving the care she needed, SAFE Haven determined that hospice fostering would give her the best quality of life.

At the time, Sparky had recently lost three of his own cats, all SAFE Haven adoptees, within a single year. “I was taking a break, knowing full well I’d find someone who needed me soon enough. A month later, I was asked if I would take a hospice cat. I said yes without reservations.”

More Cats, More Love

About a month after Zanna arrived, Enchantress joined the household. An elderly dilute tortoiseshell with lymphoma in remission, Enchantress was also expected to have limited time. Instead, she enjoyed four years in Sparky’s care before her lymphoma returned.

“Although Enchantress and Zanna shared a home, they weren’t close. Each had their own space, and they each got all the meds they needed to address their problems and plenty of love to make their final days comfortable.” Enchantress passed in 2020, and Zanna remained with Sparky until 2024.

After Zanna passed, Sparky welcomed two more cats into his home: Cordon Bleu and Liberty Bell. Both were FeLV-positive (feline leukemia virus) and had been continually overlooked on the adoption floor.

At home, something wonderful happened. “They became bonded and would cuddle up together when they weren’t play fighting so loudly it sounded like they were killing each other (both were extreme drama queens).” Cordon Bleu passed in 2025, and Liberty Bell passed in early 2026.

Today, Sparky’s hospice companion is Forrest, another FeLV-positive cat who came home with him in December. With additional medical challenges, SAFE Haven staff believed Forrest would do better in a loving foster home than waiting in a shelter for an adopter.

What Does Hospice Fostering Really Look Like?

According to Sparky, caring for a hospice cat isn’t all that different from caring for any other cat. “You provide a space, food, litter, enrichment, meds. If there are medical conditions that need to be monitored, you monitor them and stay in communication with SHFC staff to ensure decisions are made for the best interest of the cat.”

“When a cat feels safe and loved, they blossom. When a hospice cat is given a home full of love, patience, and security, they blossom. Obviously, love alone will not keep an ill cat alive longer than the body can sustain them, but feeling that love, that warmth, well, l that’s just one less stress factor the cat has to endure, and that can affect its health positively.”

Is Saying Goodbye Worth It?

For many potential foster families, the hardest part of hospice fostering is knowing that goodbye may come sooner than they’d like. Sparky understands that concern, but he offers a different perspective.

“Yes, these hospice kitties are cats you know have a limited time with you, but that’s true for any cat. Is a cat near the end of its life less deserving of love? I think a case might be made that they deserve more.”

And while saying goodbye is never easy, Sparky believes the love shared makes it worthwhile. 

A Gift That Changes Everything

For Sparky, hospice fostering is about giving cats what every animal deserves: comfort, companionship, security, and love. “You know that you’ve made their final days/months/years worth living. They aren’t sitting in a cage. They weren’t euthanized for convenience. They felt love, warmth, companionship in their time of need.”

His message to anyone considering hospice fostering is simple: “Hospice kitties are so worth your time. If you have space and if you have the time and if you have the love, you owe it to yourself to see what you’re capable of.”

Thank you, Sparky, for more than three decades of dedication to SAFE Haven and for showing us that every day of love matters, whether a cat has eight years or just a little time left.

Why Foster a Cat

When you foster a cat, you’re helping more than the kitty in your home. You’re making room for the next cat or kitten who needs us.

That extra space is powerful. National data from Best Friends Animal Society shows that shelters with robust foster programs have higher adoption rates than those without. Foster homes give cats a comfortable place to wait for adoption while freeing shelter space and staff resources for animals who need more intensive care.

We’re seeing that impact right here at SAFE Haven. 

When writing this article in October 2026, SAFE Haven had 70 active foster families (and SH staff) with 32 fosters currently in care and 38 ready and willing to take a placement when needed. Our goal is to have 100 total foster volunteers ready to take a kitty by the end of 2026.

More fosters willing to open their homes means more cats SAFE Haven can help. When a cat stays with a foster family, our veterinary team can focus on cats who need the most medical attention. It also gives us more flexibility when a local shelter or community member reaches out about a cat in urgent need of help. Even when our shelter is full, an available foster home can give us another way to support our community.

One of the best things about fostering a cat is getting to know who they really are. Does your foster love watching birds through the window? Follow you around while you work? Have a favorite toy? Prefer a quiet home? What you learn can help us find the perfect adopter for them. Some cats can even be adopted directly from their foster homes by the foster, a family member, or friends in their close circle! All SAFE Haven adoptions, whether from foster or in the traditional shelter setting, follow our established approval and cat selection processes; however, fosterers can help find their foster cat a great home by using their personal networks to share and facilitate an adoption.

Fostering brings our work into the community. Every foster family becomes part of a larger network that shares cats, tells their stories, and introduces more people to SAFE Haven’s mission. That means more people discovering adoption, volunteering, fostering, and other ways to help cats in our community.

We’ve Made Fostering Easier

You don’t need to be an experienced cat caregiver to foster with SAFE Haven. One of the biggest changes to our foster program is a renewed focus on placing healthy, otherwise adoptable cats in foster homes, where they can wait until it is their chance to meet their forever family. This lets fosterers of all skill levels get involved right away and gives our cats a chance to practice living the housecat life before their eventual adoption. SAFE Haven prioritizes foster placements for cats who need a comfortable temporary home, daily attention and care, and someone to help prepare them for their future family.

As you get to know your foster cat, you can help us tell their story, share their personality, and introduce them to potential adopters in your circle. While SAFE Haven handles the adoption process, you become one of their biggest advocates. We even encourage you to be a “Cat-fluencer” and create social content to help your kitty get adopted faster!

We’ve also made it easier to find foster opportunities that work for you. Our application asks in-depth questions about your experience, home, schedule, and the types of cats you’re most comfortable fostering. We use that information to match you with cats that fit your preferences and availability so that you won’t be inundated with emails about fosters you’re not interested in or able to take. And with foster orientation offered multiple times a month, you can get started the same week you apply!

Best of all, you’ll have support every step of the way. SAFE Haven has a dedicated Foster Coordinator to answer questions, provide guidance, and help you feel confident caring for your foster cat. You provide the temporary home; we’ll help with the rest!

What Makes a Great Foster Volunteer?

You don’t need previous shelter experience, a veterinary degree, or a perfect home. Great foster volunteers are willing to learn, follow care instructions, communicate with our team, and be honest about what they can take on. And you don’t need to have constant availability to offer foster support. Vacations, busy seasons, and breaks are expected; that’s why we aim to recruit a large, flexible foster community!

Our best foster volunteers are people who communicate with us, are honest about what they can take on, pay attention to their foster cat’s needs, and are willing to learn along the way. We also appreciate flexibility because, as every cat person knows, cats don’t always follow the plan! Most importantly, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. Our Foster Coordinator helps match you with the right cat, provides guidance, and will be there for you when you inevitably have questions.

And remember, every foster can leave a lasting impact on SAFE Haven’s overall adoption success with every placement they take on. While “foster fails” make for sweet stories, only about 15% of SAFE Haven foster cats were adopted directly from their foster homes. For many volunteers, the joy of fostering lies in helping one cat find their forever family, then opening their home to the next cat who needs a temporary place to land.

More Ways to Foster

Although we prioritize sending cats ready for adoption into foster, we do often need volunteers interested in taking on more challenging (and rewarding!) placements. SAFE Haven also needs help fostering cats with medical and socialization needs. These cats may need medication, additional monitoring, or extra help building confidence and learning to trust people. Additional training is required, but SAFE Haven provides individualized guidance and support along the way. Helping a cat blossom in foster care can be one of the most rewarding volunteer experiences you’ll have!

Ready to Foster a Cat?

Getting started is easy. SAFE Haven offers foster orientation weekly to help new volunteers get involved while they’re excited and ready. Whether you foster one cat, open your home a few times a year, or become a regular foster volunteer, you’re helping create space for another cat who needs SAFE Haven.

Meet Foster Volunteers Making a Difference Right Now