Open your home. Change a life.
A foster home is the difference between waiting and living. Yours is closer to ready than you think.
These animals are waiting right now.
Animals from rescues on Second Tail come first: tap one to apply to foster them. After them, adoptable dogs and cats from RescueGroups. Every one of them does better in a home than in a kennel.
On Second Tail
On Second Tail
On Second TailYour home changes the odds.
A kennel is loud and stressful. A home is where an animal rests, settles, and starts to show who they are. And the photos and updates you share are how adopters find them: in one study of 468 adopted dogs, photo quality had the biggest effect on how fast they went home.
as likely to be adopted, for shelter dogs who spent just one or two nights in a foster home.
Gunter et al., Animals (2023)in a foster home significantly lowered shelter dogs' stress hormones, and they rested more.
Gunter et al., PeerJ (2026)of animals adopted out by rescues with foster programs, compared with 48% without.
Best Friends Animal SocietyFrom a survey of about 650 rescues and shelters, and studies of shelter dogs. They show a strong link between fostering and adoption, not a controlled experiment. Photo study: Animals (2020).
Start fostering in three steps.
Rescues are used to first-timers, and they will walk you through it.
Create your free profile
Tell rescues a bit about yourself: your home, your schedule, and the animals you can welcome.
Connect with a local rescue
Browse rescues in your area and express interest. They'll reach out to get you started.
Meet your foster & their care plan
When you're matched, everything lands in your app: care instructions, contacts, the works.
No more digging through the group chat.
Care instructions, the vet’s number, what you’re owed for last week’s food. If your rescue runs on texts and email, all of it lives somewhere you have to go looking. Here it lives in one place on your phone.
Request supplies in one tap
Low on food or poop bags? Send a request to your rescue right from the app.
Fostering more than one? Easy.
A guided flow walks you through each animal's update, one at a time.
Seen, never left on read
Send a rough-day update and see a "Seen by the rescue" tag once your team has read it.
The following is an interactive demo using a fictional rescue and invented animals. Maple Street Rescue is not a real organization.
Needs you
Coming up
Your updates
- OK daySeen by the rescueOct 2
Quieter than usual but drinking. Short walk around the block and a long nap.
- Great daySeen by the rescueSep 26
Played fetch in the yard for twenty minutes, then slept all afternoon.
Care
Behavior and house notes
Shy with new people for the first few minutes, then glued to your side. Good with calm dogs, not tested with cats. Crate trained and sleeps through the night.
From Maple Street Rescue
Adoption
Maple Street Rescue asked you to pick photos and tell Luna’s story.
Journey
- Ready for adoptionOct 5
- Vaccines up to dateSep 14 · Rabies and DHPP at Maple Street Vet
- Moved in with youMay 18
- Came into Maple Street RescueMay 12
This is the real app, not a picture of one. Try it the way you would on a Tuesday night, one hand, half paying attention.
Not everything in here is wired up. Tap something that isn't and it will tell you what it does.
Rescues on Second Tail post the animals who need a foster home, marked “On Second Tail” above. Apply for one you love, or make a profile and we’ll tell you when a rescue near you joins.
Create your free profileAlready fostering? Ask your rescue to join. Then care plans, appointments, supplies, and messages all live in one place instead of your inbox or group chats.
Show your rescue what it doesEverything you need, nothing you don't.
Updates with photos & videos
Share how they're doing in a few taps. Add photos and videos, done in under a minute.
Watch them grow
Weight and progress tracking turn your daily care into charts the whole rescue celebrates.
Supplies in one tap
Running low? Send a supply request to your rescue directly from the app.
Direct messaging
Ask your rescue anything and get a real answer. No group-chat noise.
Appointments & events, with RSVP
Request vet visits, see what's coming up, and RSVP to rescue events in one tap.
Emergency help, 24/7
Something feel off? One tap to emergency contacts and resources, any time.
Make a profile now, meet a rescue later.
You don’t need a rescue lined up to start. Make your profile and you’re first in line the moment one near you joins, and we’ll email you when that happens.
Ready to open your home?
Create your free profile and start connecting with rescue organizations near you. A foster animal is waiting.
Free for fosters, always