All Dogs At Shelter Find Foster Homes In Face Of Coronavirus

NORTH FORK, NY — Racing to find fosters in the face of the new coronavirus, it was a big outpouring of love at the North Fork Animal Welfare League in Peconic as the community opened their hearts and homes — with 21 dogs fostered in 5 days.

"It was an amazing thing to see happen," said the NFAWL's Gabrielle Stroup. "These people are giving these dogs such a great opportunity— even if they don't end up being foster fails, we will have so much more knowledge about the dogs' behaviors in a home. Although many already, I am told, are foster fails."

Foster fails are dogs who are ultimately too hard to give back and are adopted and kept in their forever homes.

According to Katelyn Knapp of the NFAWL, they issued the plea for people to join the organization's foster program during the current "difficult" times.

"We are preparing for intakes at shelters across the country to rise due to the uncertainty of the the economy and unprecedented impact of the coronavirus," Knapp said. "We have many dogs and cats that would benefit tremendously from living in a home environment."

When they heard that the North Fork Animal Welfare League in Peconic was looking for fosters for their homeless dogs during the coronavirus outbreak, Kristin and Vinny Tirelli of Mattituck decided to bring home a sweet pup.

"You can be part of the problem or part of the solution," Kristin Tirelli said. "The choice is yours."

Oreo, Tirelli said, has already found a permanent home.

"Today we are joyful!" Tirelli wrote on Facebook. "Oreo has found her forever home! She’s moving to Connecticut. I’ve spoken with her forever mom and they sound like a wonderful family who also have a large piece of property for her to run around on. We will certainly miss her but feel blessed that we were able to help our friends at NFAWL."