Dogs & cats · Updated August 31, 2026

Foster Pet Intake Form

An animal arrives with whatever paperwork it happens to have and whatever the person handing it over remembers to say, and both are usually incomplete. Filling this in at the door, while that person is still standing there, is the only reliable moment to capture a vaccination date, a surrender reason or the fact that the dog has bitten someone. A week later it is a phone call nobody answers.

The form is written to be filled in twice: what you were told at intake, and what you observe over the first two weeks, which frequently differs. Both matter. Adopters are placed on the strength of this record, and an honest behavior section — including bite history, which must never be left blank because it was awkward to ask — is what keeps an animal from being returned or a family from being hurt. Where you do not know something, write "unknown" rather than leaving a gap, so a later reader can tell the difference between not asked and not applicable.

How to use it

1Fill in the top half while the person handing the animal over is still with you. Ask the awkward questions then — surrender reason, bite history, whether the animal has lived with children — because they are much harder to ask later.
2Write 'unknown' rather than leaving anything blank. A gap reads as 'no', and that is how an animal ends up placed on information nobody actually had.
3Copy vaccination and treatment dates from the paperwork, not from what you were told. If there is no paperwork, record that plainly.
4Check for a microchip at intake and record the number and whether it is registered. Scanning is free at most practices and rescues.
5Use the first-two-weeks section for what you see rather than what you were told. Many animals show little of their real behavior in the first three days.
6Keep the completed form with the animal's file, and send a copy with it to its adopter or its next foster placement.

What is on the sheet

Animal

Name / call name, Species, Breed or best guess, Estimated age, Sex, Weight at intake, Color and markings, Intake date

Identification

2-row table: Microchip number, Scanned by, Registered? (yes / no / unknown), Collar, tag or tattoo

Where the animal came from

Record what you are told, and who told you. If the animal was found rather than surrendered, note where and by whom.

Source (owner surrender / stray / transfer / seizure), Organization or person, Contact number, Date acquired by them
4 ruled lines

Medical history as supplied

Copy from paperwork where it exists. Write 'no record' where it does not — that is different from 'not done'.

9 listed items, each with a tick box and columns for Date, Product or brand, Due next
Spayed / neutered?, Date of procedure, Known conditions, Current medications
4 ruled lines

Behavior as reported

What the previous keeper says. Ask each of these out loud rather than assuming; tick only what you were actually told.

12 listed items, each with a tick box and columns for Reported (yes / no / unknown), Detail
Any bite history? (yes / no / unknown), If yes: date and circumstances, Any resource guarding reported?, Any known fears or triggers
4 ruled lines

Feeding

3-row table: Food (brand and type), Amount, Times per day, Treats, chews or extras
3 ruled lines

The first two weeks — what you observe

Fill this in yourself over the settling-in period. Where it contradicts what you were told, the observation is the more useful record.

10-row table: Date, Eating / drinking, Toileting, Behavior and mood, Notes
5 ruled lines

Contacts and next steps

Foster coordinator, Coordinator phone, Veterinary practice, Practice phone, Emergency vet, Emergency phone
5-row table: What, Date booked, Where, Done

Worth knowing

Quarantine a new arrival from resident pets until your rescue's intake protocol and your vet are satisfied — kennel cough, parvovirus, ringworm and feline upper respiratory infections all travel in on animals that look well.
Do not introduce a new foster to resident animals on day one. Most rescues use a decompression period of several days to a couple of weeks; ask your coordinator what they expect and write the plan down.
A frightened animal that has never bitten can bite. Record what you were told about bite history, and record separately what you observe, without merging the two.
Photograph any injury, sore, or skin condition at intake, with the date. Documented arrival condition protects both the animal and the foster.
If an animal arrives collapsed, bleeding, struggling to breathe, straining unproductively to urinate, or having a seizure, it goes to a vet before the paperwork gets finished.
Ask what the animal was actually being fed and keep it on that for the first days, changing over gradually. Stress plus a sudden diet change is a reliable way to produce diarrhoea.

This is a form for recording what you observe, not a diagnostic tool. Nothing on it replaces an examination. If your pet is in distress, contact a veterinarian rather than filling in a sheet.