Story by Lilly Parsley
Photos by Ella Johnston
The Bowling Green/Warren County Humane Society is home to many animals who are in need of a permanent home. According to their website, the organization’s foster programs allow local animal lovers to take care of a pet for a short period of time.
Community Cat Program Manager Emily Cothran from Bowling Green said that there are many different pathways to getting involved with the work at BGWCHS, including several programs and volunteer opportunities.
Cothran said two of these programs, Home for the Holidays and Home for the Storm, have allowed more members of the community to become involved with fostering. These programs, she said, have a different purpose than the normal foster programs at BGWCHS.
“If staff is going to be limited, we want those animals to have more interaction and more care than what we can give,” Cothran said. “We are here every day. It does not matter what the weather is doing.”
Cothran said that although the staff is present at BGWCHS daily, it is helpful to have more pets in foster during the winter weather. She also said that fostering allows people to experience the joy of more animals while BGWCHS covers the cost of pet inhabitancy.
“Nobody needs to adopt dozens of kittens a year, but you can foster dozens of kittens a year and give them back when they’re ready to go home,” Cothran said.
Sara Ann Alexander, a teacher at Moss Middle School from Glasgow said she started her fostering journey in 2020.
After learning about the programs at BGWCHS during the pandemic, Alexander said she got involved with fostering puppies and kittens.
“They’re too small to stay in the shelter and not risk getting sick, and too small to get vaccines,” Alexander said. “Especially with all the talk about vaccines at the time, it just seems like it just makes sense that they would need to get out.”
Alexander said she first fostered kittens, which came with its own set of hardships. She said that although kittens can do almost everything a cat can do, they are uniquely difficult compared to puppies, who can adapt to different environments more comfortably.
Cothran, who has been involved with BGWCHS for five years, said that foster kittens are prominent in Bowling Green, so they are the most critical.
“That’s my main interaction with the foster program, is that we’re one of the larger suppliers, if you will, of kittens,” Cothran said.
Cothran said that neonatal kittens are the largest demographic at risk in animal shelters due to a lack of resources, studies and specialty care. She said that kittens also account for almost 80% of foster pets at BGWCHS.
Bryanda Neighbors from Glasgow, who works in the intake facility at BGWCHS, said that she also works with a lot of neonatal and feral kittens at the shelter.
“I’ve sent several of these ‘want to tear your face off’ kittens into foster, and they come back very, very sweet,” Neighbors said. “It’s just a matter of hands-on working with them.”
Neighbors also said that fostering allows BGWCHS to gain valuable information about animals who come in as strays, including whether they do well with other pets, children or as house pets.
Alexander said it is important to get foster animals, especially puppies, acclimated to household noises, a schedule and a family environment because they learn to be good house pets by exposure.
Alexander said she fostered 15 puppies in 2025 alone, and that it does not come without hardships. She said she often reflects on the time she fostered seven puppies who had been found abandoned in a box.
“It’s like you’re experiencing the community through some of the worst decisions that people have made with their animals,” Alexander said. “The first time I held those tiny puppies, I was like, ‘I can’t believe anyone would do this.’”
Alexander also said that saying “goodbye” could be one of the hardest parts of fostering. She said she has learned that the best thing to do is say her farewells at home in order to have closure.
“I say my goodbyes the night before,” Alexander said.
For some foster parents, however, saying “goodbye” is not the only option. Caitlyn Combs from Frankfort, Kentucky, said she gave her foster dog, Sonny, a forever home.
Combs said she first got involved with BGWCHS in 2025, when her boyfriend adopted a black lab-corgi mix named Bear.
During the winter storm in January 2026, Combs said she saw a post on Facebook about fostering for BGWCHS. She said this is how she connected with Sonny, a cardigan welsh corgi-jack russel mix. Although she said she was happy to take Sonny in for the weekend, there was an unexpected issue.
“When they went to print his foster papers, he just tested positive for kennel cough,” Combs said. “We didn’t know that he was sick, but healing here, I think it really helped him get better.”
Combs said that as Sonny improved under her care, she became more attached and he felt like her “little buddy.”
Combs said she adopted Sonny after fostering, and continues to appreciate BGWCHS and their foster programs. She said she feels that these programs helped others to have a more open mind to fostering. Although she faced her own hardships, she said it was worth every trial.
“Maybe this will inspire other people, but the couple of accidents, the negatives and stuff, in the end, is so worth it,” Combs said.
Alexander said that time passes for people and animals alike, and that it’s better spent together.
“Isn’t it so much better for them to have a home where they’re still valued and loved,” Alexander said.