A stay-at-home order may leave you feeling a little lonely — and some UNC students have found solace in adopting or fostering a furry friend.
Rebekah Appleton, a graduate student in the school of government, began fostering a cat from Neshama Animal Rescue in Raleigh several weeks ago.
“I live alone and thought having a cat around would make it less lonely,” Appleton said. “The best part is having something to keep my mind off of everything going on right now. It can be overwhelming and it’s nice to have another living thing for comfort.”
Pam Geiger, who works for Meow House Cat Rescue, said adoptions and fosters have gone up recently. In order to uphold social distancing measures, Meow House has conducted virtual meet and greets for those interested in adopting cats. They have also allowed in-home trials for those who prefer to meet their cat in person before adopting it.
“We are overwhelmed with both foster applications and adoption applications,” Geiger said. “I think a lot of people are realizing it’s a good time to foster or adopt because they’re going to be home and they have the time to invest.”
The past several weeks have put Meow House in an interesting situation, Geiger said, as they are receiving more foster applications than cats they have to foster out.
“This is a good place to be, but it’s an unusual place to be,” Geiger said. “We had a cat that we hadn’t fostered for five years that got adopted in the last couple weeks.”
Samantha Zielinski, a junior studying psychology and communication studies, recently adopted a goldendoodle puppy with her family.
Since the entire family is home, Zielinski said they figured now would be the best time to adopt because they have an indefinite amount of time at home to devote to training him.
