“Oh that’s cute !” exclaimed an older male guest coming out of the Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis. He ducked as Dash jumped on the end of his leash, held by general manager Stacy Howlett. “No jumping and no biting!” said the guest happily. Dash squirmed at the man’s feet and happily accepted the petting.

“He’s only three months old. It’s not there yet,” Howlett explained. “He’s from Stray Rescue and he’s looking for a house. These are sharp baby teeth bites for sure.

Dash is the hotel’s adopted dog, who lived there for a few weeks in May. He took turns going home with different members of staff (“It’s a hug,” Deputy General Manager John Schuler suggests), but he otherwise spent time hanging out with the bellhop, greeting guests at the reception and snoozing in the office via Zoom calls.

The unusual arrangement between the rescue agency and Angad Arts – just a 25-minute dog walk away – is just one of the creative ways animal groups are trying to recruit foster families.

Foster families are ideal for animals that may need a little extra attention: those who are anxious and can’t stand the stress of a shelter, those who are pregnant and need a quiet place to whelp and care for their litter, or those recovering from surgery or undergoing treatment. Foster families also help relieve shelter workers, which are often overflowing with animals. Agencies provide food and supplies to families.

Like many relief agencies, the Humane Society of Missouri has seen an increase in the number of families willing to foster animals during the pandemic. Sometimes families foster and then choose to adopt the animal – jokingly, the rescue community calls it a “foster failure”.

The Humane Society has over 250 foster families and has a foster program for animals that need special attention – they will hang around the society offices for a few days.

Some families participate in a “foster to adopt” program, where they take in a dog treated for heartworm with the intention of adopting it.

“We kind of had this moment where we were like, wouldn’t it be right for us to beat the middleman and this foster family can be their adoptive family?” said Sarah Schimmele, the Humane Society’s volunteer manager. “It’s kind of intentionally promoting failure.”

Anne Schmidt, executive director of the Metro East Humane Society, has seen her list of foster families increase by 75% during the pandemic, mainly due to the need to reduce the number of building workers.

Now that more volunteers can come, they’re starting a “Dog Venture” program where volunteers take dogs on excursions, like for a dog-friendly treat at Starbucks or a nature walk.

“Just spending time outside of a kennel does wonders,” she said. Volunteers learn how animals handle a car or leash, how they interact with the public, and how they behave around children – valuable information for potential families forever.

The APA of Missouri places approximately 4,500 pets each year. About 2,000 of them go through foster families. The agency recruits foster families through the usual methods of social media and email. Recently, it hosted a Big Dogs happy hour, Big Love, designed to get families to take in large dogs, which are harder to place.

In their Senior Saviors program, foster animals are placed in a senior care facility for staff and residents to care for. Animals are socialized and residents like to love and follow them, which facilitates mobility.

“Particularly for seniors who are in these facilities for memory issues, this allows families to have positive experiences with their loved one rather than a pet,” said Sarah Javier, President and CEO of The direction. “It creates happy memories. It provides health benefits for the person and the animal, which is truly amazing.

Most of the animals at Gateway Pet Guardians in East St. Louis live in foster homes. As of the start of this week, they had 206 animals in the shelter or foster homes, including 28 in the building.

The shelter runs a Unicorn Foster program, for animals that might be more difficult to place because they react to strangers, other dogs, or have other needs. Unicorn Foster parents receive in-home training, access to a Facebook page where they can seek advice from other foster parents, free childcare and perks such as t-shirts and photo shoots at a shelter.

Gateway Pet Guardians also offers a Slumber Pawty program where families can bring a pet home for a long weekend. Usually, about half of “pawty animals” go into permanent foster homes until they’re adopted, said adoption and foster care manager Amanda Loellke.

As more families have been taken in during the pandemic, the shelter is experiencing a slight dip in interest as people return to the office or on vacation. She can now recruit at in-person events, which weren’t as common during the height of the pandemic.

“We don’t want to burn out people who keep coming back,” she said. “We couldn’t do it without them.”

As for Stray Rescue of St. Louis and the hotel, their relationship began a few years ago during a snowstorm forecast. The emergency services asked the hotel if its employees could stay at the hotel if necessary. The hotel said yes, but the storm passed and no one needed a room.

The conversation continued and Angad Arts offered to let a volunteer stay at the hotel one night a month with a dog of their choice. This is a plus for the volunteers and the pets, especially if the animal needs surgery the next day, a day to unwind from life at the shelter.

Recently, Executive Director Howlett saw Stray Rescue’s call on social media for foster families, and she called Natalie Thomson, Marketing Director for Stray Rescue. “What would you think if we adopted a dog and had him here as a little ambassador for Stray Rescue?” Howlett asked. “Absolutely,” Thomson said. “We have the perfect puppy for you. Come immediately.

This is how Dash won the hearts of hotel employees and guests. It’s not a difficult task, since the hotel accepts dogs anyway: its chef prepares homemade treats for guests’ dogs, he provides food and water bowls, and he offers tennis balls. matching the colors of the room (Angad Arts is known for its bright blue, yellow, red or green rooms).

One day, Kim Heck of the Lawrence Group, the company that owns the hotel, came to the hotel for the company’s annual retreat. Howlett came around the corner with Dash, who ran to Heck. “I was like, oh my God, we have to have it,” she said.

So now Dash lives with the Heck family in Pevely, which includes an older brother dog, Paxton, who is super relaxed and tolerant, and a cat, Gemini, who isn’t so much of a fan. But Dash now has a big yard to play in and is getting used to potty training. The hotel hopes to have another foster dog soon.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Heck said. “It’s a great way to get him adopted.”