Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond

Name: Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond
Price: 175 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780443438325

A Guide for Companion Animal Foster Care Providers and Shelters

by Laura A. Reese

1st Edition

Publisher: Academic Press

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Book Details

Print ISBN	9780443438325
eText ISBN	9780443438332
Publisher	Academic Press
Publishing Year	2025
Edition	1st Edition
Language	English
Pages	280

In Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond (1st Edition), author Laura A. Reese delivers a structured examination of companion animal foster care programs and their role in modern shelter operations. Published by Academic Press, this volume connects empirical research on human-animal relationships directly to practical methods for improving shelter animal welfare standards across organizations.

The text investigates systematic methods designed to strengthen volunteer recruitment and long-term retention in shelter foster initiatives. By addressing common operational challenges in companion animal care, the research presents practical pathways to relieve housing capacity constraints while supporting community volunteer networks.

With its focused application of human-animal bond studies, the book provides targeted tools for shelter administrators, foster coordinators, and professional animal care staff. It also supplies grounded research material for academic researchers and university students who study human-animal interactions, volunteer programs, and systemic animal welfare solutions.

Chapter 1: Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond
- • a. Prelude
- • b. The need for animal foster care
- • c. Research questions
- • d. Organization of the book
Chapter 2: Literature Review
- • a. The role of fostering, benefits to animal welfare and sheltering
- • b. Motivations for volunteering generally and fostering specifically
- • c. Human-animal bond and the attachment to pets
- • d. Lessons from the human foster care literature
- • e. Human personality and the human-animal bond
- • f. Grief, resiliency and self-care
- • g. Volunteer satisfaction
- • h. The hypothetical model, tying the literature together
- • i. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 3: Methodology
- • a. Survey construction and participants: sampling, questionnaire construction, response rate
- • b. Measures and indicators
- • c. Analytic methods
- • d. Characteristics of the respondents
Chapter 4: Foster Volunteers and Nature of the Fostering Experience
- • a. Motivations to foster
- • b. Other volunteer activities of foster carers
- • c. Tenure and frequency of fostering
- • d. Types of animals fostered (species, medical, behavioral, very young animals)
- • e. Summary of the effects of volunteer traits
- • f. Testing Part 1 of the explanatory model
- • g. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 5: The Emotions of Fostering
- • a. Volunteer descriptions of the foster experience
- • b. Attachment to foster animals
- • c. Reactions to loss/leaving of foster animals
- • d. The importance of fostering mindset
- • e. Volunteer expectations for the foster experience versus reality
- • f. Testing Part 2 of the explanatory model
- • g. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 6: Dealing with the Emotions of Fostering: Self-Care, Resilience, and Satisfaction
- • a. Volunteer self-care practices
- • b. Foster volunteer resilience
- • c. Foster volunteer satisfaction
- • d. Correlates of self-care, resilience, and satisfaction
- • e. Testing Part 3 of the explanatory model
- • f. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 7: Summary and Implications for Practice
- • a. Revisiting the research questions
- • b. Summary of key takeaways from each chapter
- • c. Shelter administrators survey
- • d. Other implications for practice
- • e. Limitations and future research
- • f. Postlude