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Every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Bounce Animal Rescue hosts an adoption event at Pet Supplies Plus. During the event, participants can walk around and pet, hold, and play with all the dogs that make an appearance during that Saturday. There are typically between 20 and 30 adoptions at each event, adding up to between 800 and 1,000 adoptions yearly. They also hold private adoption events during the week if people are unable to make it on Saturdays.

Bounce Animal Rescue is unique compared to other animal rescue shelters because they are 100 percent foster-based. This means that they don’t have a physical location where all their animals live. Instead, there are tons of volunteers who foster the animals that are brought into Bounce’s care.

Being completely foster-based means Bounce has more flexibility to participate in community outreach within Fort Collins. This includes events like puppy yoga, which Bounce partners with Maxline Brewing to give people the chance to interact with puppies in a fun, active way.

“We have a strong sense of community,” Anneliese Clark, the Executive Director of Bounce, said in an interview during an adoption event, “Not only within our own group, but also because we are able to do a lot of community outreach events.”

Their animals come mostly from at-risk situations around the United States; hoarding, kill shelters, owner relinquishes, strays, etc. and are almost immediately put into foster care where they get the kind of care they need. This can include home etiquette, vaccinations, microchips, dental, getting spayed/ neutered, de-wormed, or any other type of care the animal may require.

From there, the animals are placed for adoption, but will stay with their foster home until they are adopted.

“They’re able to live in a home and live that awesome life until they move on to their next adoptive home,” Clark said. Staying with one foster home also helps to have successful, compatible adoptions. The foster owner will spend enough time with the animal to be able to fully disclose that animal’s behavior and ensure that the animal is with its perfect match. This way, they may never see the animal enter Bounce’s doors again.

Bounce doesn’t just take in dogs and puppies either, they will occasionally have felines, guinea pigs, and birds that are brought in.

“Whatever our foster homes want to take on,” Clark said, “Essentially that’s what we take on.”

Clark’s favorite success stories involve animals that were neglected or abused before entering Bounce. She enjoys watching them grow and be nursed back to health. One that came to her mind was a Boxer named Molly. She came to Bounce weighing only 27 pounds when she should be weighing 50 pounds. After only three weeks under Bounce’s care, Molly has gained 10 pounds.

Clark herself has seven personal dogs and still continues to foster around 500 dogs a year. She admits that she has “foster failed” a lot, but it is ok. Sometimes foster homes just fall in love with the dogs they foster and decide to keep them. They do have to try and go into the fostering program with the mindset that they will be giving this animal up at some point.

“This is kinda like a recycling movement,” Clark said. Bounce brings in animals from less fortunate areas of the United States to Fort Collins where animals are celebrated every day.

If you are interested in finding out more about Bounce, adopting, or fostering, go to bounceanimalrescue.org for more information.