Meet a few of the Fosters

Melissa is our current Adoption/Medical Coordinator and a Board Member. She has been involved in animal welfare and veterinary medicine for 10+ years. She lives with her boyfriend in Tucson Arizona with their pets. She specializes in caring for the tiniest, sickest felines, as well as having experience with special needs cats/kittens. Melissa loves helping our foster families learn critical skills such as giving medications, administration of fluids and even tube feeding. 

Cortney is one of our Board members and has been fostering for over 15 years. She has focused on fostering cats and dogs but has also fostered other animals. She has been a dog trainer for over 15 years as well and works with adopters and rescue groups on dog training. Cortney specializes in handicapped animals, but also fosters several others. She has 2 personal cats who were both born with no front legs, several large breed dogs,  horses, and more on her farm!

Abby started her journey with SACR after losing her kitty companion, Alice in 2020. She adopted Simon after going back and forth between the idea of adopting or fostering. A year later, she was in a better situation to foster and had her first litter in February 2021. She has taken on lots of different kitties including medical cases, bottle babies and socialization cases. Since then she has become more active with SACR and runs our TikTok as well as took on the role as one of our Adoption Event Coordinators. 

I’ve always loved animals, as a young child I was lucky enough to live right next to the Zoo! When we moved away, I took it upon myself to save all of my neighborhood cats, either by returning them to their owners or taking them to an informal cat rescuer, “Carol the cat lady” who lived just outside of town. She was awesome, and I credit her for all my crazy cat lady aspirations. Today I am a volunteer docent at the Reid Park zoo and am in school pursuing my bachelors in elementary Education.

My passion for animals started at a very young age, and was heavily influenced by my mom. I started my path to becoming a veterinarian early, becoming a Certified Veterinary Assistant before graduating high school, and was given the opportunity to complete a year and a half internship at a local veterinary emergency hospital here in Tucson. I was also lucky enough to volunteer in the clinic at Pima Animal Care Center, where I saw orphaned kittens being brought in daily. A few months later I decided I wanted to try my hand at fostering neonatal kittens. I am now a sophomore at the University of Arizona, studying Veterinary Science. I have fostered 24 orphaned kittens, and I just recently decided to foster hospice cats as well. These little ones overcome so much already in their short lives, and there is nothing more rewarding than being able to provide care and love to them while they try to find their forever homes.

 Chris and Miriam moved to the US from Europe. While in Tucson, our family has grown to include three children, two dogs, five backyard chickens, and occasional SACR foster cats/kittens.   With our boys getting older it is important to us to teach them about respect, kindness, compassion, and volunteerism.   One way our family is involved in the local Tucson community is with our therapy dog, Saya. One of our sons, Finn, is a registered junior handler with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. He and Saya visit the UofA and senior facilities in Tucson to share smiles and lots of puppy love.   We started to foster with SACR when we learnt that 45 cats and kittens made their way to Tucson from a local, underfunded, outdoor shelter in Texas. With so many cats and kittens coming into SACR at once, we knew we needed to help. Our house is a loving, buzzing place which is great for our foster kittens to develop important socialization skills.   The best thing about fostering with SACR for us is knowing that we make a difference together,  saving a life, and helping an animal find their own amazing family.