From Firehouse to Fostering

Tri-City Tales Issue No. 35

When Deb Mullins retired from a longtime career at the Dallas Fire Department in 2020, she decided to spend some of her newfound free time volunteering at Tri-City Animal Shelter. Deb had adopted pets from the shelter since the 1990s, including a once-feral male cat named Charlie who now leads a life of comfort-- with the belly to show for it.

For almost a year, Deb cleaned cages and saw to other small tasks at the shelter. One day in the spring of 2021, the shelter director asked Deb if she would be interested in fostering a litter of kittens. Deb thought about the kittens she was seeing --  mostly confined to their cages, making the best of their tight spaces. “They’re trying to bat balls around, and they end up in their food, in their litter boxes, and they can’t really play,” she says. She agreed to become a kitten foster mom.

Deb enlisted the help of her neighbor Becky Armstrong, who ripped out the carpet in a spare room of her house and turned it into a spacious kitty condo. (Both Deb and Becky are now board members of Friends of Tri-City Animal Shelter.) That year, the pair took in litter after litter—41 kittens in total. They signed up for the next year, and the next.

The shelter provides the supplies to care for their foster animals—and even offers short trial periods. And for foster parents who don’t have an entire extra room, the shelter offers large, roomy wire kennels.

Becky and Deb have now cared for more than 100 kittens. A photo album has pictures of each one in a kind of cat baby book. When the kittens return to the shelter, Deb includes a little card with her contact information in case the new owners want to know more about the early life of their new cat. 

When she first started fostering, Deb worried that she might become too attached to the kittens to give them back. “I’ve never had any animals that I didn’t have their whole life,” she says. But that fear has been replaced by the reassurance of knowing the fostering helps the kittens become socialized and litter box trained—increasing their chances for adoption. “I can provide them with a few months of happiness,” she says. “We’ve given 100 kittens a healthy start.” A start they take with them for the rest of their lives.