There's nothing like a hot cup of cocoa, a good book, and a happy, warm pet cuddled in the nook of your arm. It's that time of year again, a time to remember 'tis the season of giving.

Rescue shelters are always looking for foster homes for stray pets. According to Animal Outreach, a local cat, kitten and farm animal rescue group, dozens of animals are euthanized each week in order to avoid overcrowding in local shelters. Fortunately, animal lovers can volunteer their time and open their homes to help. Fostering a homeless dog or cat would help this crowding problem immensely.

Kathy Stirrat, a receptionist at Beaver Creek Animal Hospital in St. Thomas, is a long-time foster animal parent. "It's a positive thing as a city to say that we have a no-kill pound," which is only possible through the use of foster homes, she said. Not only would pounds be less packed, which in turn would decrease the amount of euthanizations occurring each week, but it would also change the life of an animal that might not necessarily get the chance of being loved otherwise.

Foster care is extremely flexible. Fostering a pet can last as long as two years or as short as two weeks. The time period is dependent on the volunteer and the animal itself. As a student, fostering a cat or dog may seem like a lot of extra responsibility, given the life that you already don't have; however, the reward lies in the brush of a cat's fluffy tail as he winds through your legs purring in appreciation or in the wagging tail of an extremely happy dog when she sees you in the morning. "(Fostering) is very fulfilling," Stirrat said. "It makes me feel so good because there are so many (animals) that I've fostered that have been adopted. I see them come back (to the clinic) when they're older and it makes me feel good."

Cats are extremely mellow, quiet, clean and low maintenance. As a student, cats are a great pet to have for company without dishing out too much money or too much time. As a member of Animal Outreach, Mary Shepherd-Ennis said, "(Cats) wrap you in the intricacies of their feline world and find a place in your heart and fill it with happy and funny moments." Dogs, on the other hand, are a bit more of a handful; however, a little effort and time goes a long way. If you're a more excitable character, dogs make great, equally excitable companions.

The process to become a foster parent is quite simple. Once you have expressed your interest in fostering an animal, a volunteer will come to check out your home, and after explaining foster care in more detail, they will have you sign a foster home agreement. If a permanent home is found while an animal is in your care, they will be taken from you and placed in the permanent home, unless you happen to fall in love with your new pet before a permanent home is found, whereby permanent adoption can be an option!

For more information on foster care, contact a local animal rescue foundation such as Animal Alert (animalert.ca) or Animal Outreach (animaloutreach.ca).

If you enjoy unconditional love, utmost gratitude, and wonderful — albeit possibly sloppy — displays of appreciation and affection, without too much of a commitment, fostering an animal is always an option.