NAUGATUCK — A Naugatuck-based organization has made it its mission to help pets find their forever homes.
Foster and Forever Pet Rescue of Naugatuck was founded in 2011 by borough resident Jamie Maslar.
Maslar had been working with animals well before starting Foster and Forever. She became involved in helping animals six years ago when one of her friends asked her to help find a home for a cat. Maslar posted the cat on her Facebook page and, shortly after, other people were asking for her help as well, she recalled. Maslar found herself posting a variety of pets on her Facebook and networking with people who wanted to adopt them.
Soon one of her friends asked Maslar if she could foster a mother cat with seven babies.
“I said ‘I’m not a rescue, I’m just helping network animals to get adopted.’ But I thought I have an extra room, so I’ll take them. So I took the mom and seven babies and got them adopted. Then somebody else called me for a mom [cat] and four babies, and I couldn’t leave them,” Maslar said. “Before you knew it people were calling me up, asking do you have any kittens or cats, and it just took off.”
Waterbury resident Lisa Mancinone, who has been friends with Maslar for many years, recently joined Foster and Forever.
Mancinone said she started fostering animals when a friend asked her if she could take care of a pregnant cat.
“I did and from that point on I just felt that I had to help. I couldn’t close my eyes any longer to the need,” Mancinone said.
Mancinone said she knew Maslar needed help, so figured they could work together to help animals find homes.
The next big step for the organization will be receiving its nonprofit status.
Maslar said the organization is currently going through the final steps of the process and expects to be an official nonprofit soon. She said becoming a nonprofit will help the organization because it would receive tax breaks on donations.
“It would also make people more apt to adopt because they can also get a tax break on their adoption fees. People would be able to claim their donations on their taxes,” Maslar said.
Maslar and Mancinone also hope more companies would be willing to work them if they became a nonprofit.
Although they are not currently a nonprofit, that does not stop Foster and Forever from raising money to take care of the animals. The organization is currently taking part in a number of events going on that are helping to raise funds.
Foster and Forever is working with Two Cousin’s Closet Consignment Shop, 18 Church St., which is offering a deal of buy one item and get one item 50 percent off. The consignment shop is donating the price of the second item to the organization. The deal runs through the end of September.
The organization is also working with Wolcott-based dog cleaner Pups in a Tub. If a first-time customer lets the company know Foster and Forever referred them, 5 percent of the proceeds are donated to the organization.
Foster and Forever has also joined teams with bravelets.com, an online bracelet store. For every bracelet sold the company donates $10 to the organization.
In addition to those events the organization is also accepting donations of money and supplies. Donations can either be made on the organization’s website, www.fosterandforever.org, or at Cheshire Cat and Dog Too, 1320 Waterbury Road, Cheshire, and The Natural & Organic Pet, 572 Middlebury Road, Middlebury.
One of the biggest ways a person can help the organization and the animals is to become a foster parent for a cat or dog, Mancinone said.
“It takes a special person, it takes room, it takes the right situation for people to take the animal,” Mancinone said.
If a person is able to foster an animal the organization will provide all of the supplies needed to care for it.
Down the road, Maslar said she would like to open a facility where she could take in stray and feral cats that are pregnant with babies. This way she would have more room to accept more animals and have the ability to care for kittens.
Maslar said the organization currently relies on foster homes to look after the animals while they are waiting to be adopted. However, there are more animals than there are foster homes.
“There are tons and tons of animals,” Maslar said.
