Hi All,

This is a great service being started by a couple of friends ...

We have had many people come to us recently seeking a temporary foster care situation for their fids due to life changes, when the parronts DID NOT want to relinquish the bird forever and couldn't afford a long term boarding situation.

This is the solution:

http://www.bkbernese.com/ktfosterbirds.htm

If you have room in your home and your hearts to join the network, please PM me.

You do not have to be in the US to participate ... we wish to be able to help globally.

Thanks for reading!

Hugs,
Joni

HJey joni you know i would lol

Obviously these birds are coming from a caring home if they are wanting them back. So could we assume that even though we should keep them away from our own birds{just in case} they would be reasonably healthy and hopefully not carrying anything? Current vet check?

Excellent point Kate ... yes, I do believe I would require a vet check before taking in a foster. I have in the past for those I currently care for.

Yes current Vet check is mandatory. The Foster contract we are working on will stipulate that.

BTW thank you Joni for EVERYTHING

I know you are Brook, you were already in......like it or not....LOL

What a fantastic idea!! As soon as I get my breeders moved into their building I will have more room and would love to help. In the meantime, can I crosspost your website to my some of my other groups?

Yep, crosspost away, and thank you very much Von

BTW the website will keep changing, as we (or should I say Kelly....LOL) add more pictures. I still need to add Sammie (QP) and Cinnamon my tiel.
If anyone has any ideas on what to add or remove, feel free to let me know.
BTW make sure you look at the video of Simon, that is my daughter he is with
Also if you are interested in fostering please let us (Joni or myself) know what species you could take in.
Brook is taking in ALL the MACAWS............LMBO

Hi Joni, What a great idea count me in.

Hugs from Mya and the rest of the flock

Hello Everyone,



I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Kelly and I am currently
owned by two TOO's and one DYHA. Theresa (hi Theresa!!) and Joni have done a fantastic
job of putting the word out about our foster program. I really feel good about this
program and am hoping at some point and time that it will take off globally, giving
other bird owners a chance to keep their beloved feathered friend in the family if they
don't want to give them up.


I am currently Fostering Simon (this is how the Foster program was thought about and
started), a MSCC, whose mom loves him very much and really didn't want to give him up
but did not think there was any other option for her except to put an ad on a list to
place him (Thank you Theresa for reaching out to her). At 1:00 AM Sunday morning Theresa
came across her ad on Craigslist and called her at a more reasnable...LOL...10AM to see
what she could do to help and then asked her about fostering him because she sounded
very upset about having to find him a home. Simon's owner was overjoyed to know that
there was another option for her. Theresa promptly called me after talking to her asking
me if I would be interested in fostering Simon. Of course I said I would, Theresa then
called her back to let her know that foster care was a go.
We met at Theresa's home on Tuesday and spent time with Simon and his mom learning
his likes and what words he can say. Simon and I stayed and visited with Theresa for a
bit and then headed home.


Simon is settling in well and getting to know us. I talked to his mom today and she is very relieved that he is doing
well and is not worried about him at all because she knows he is in good hands.



Kelly (aka Bernermom)

I also live in the area where you guys are fostering. Could you add more to your site about what is exactly involved with fostering a bird from the foster parents side. How long do you usually keep them, who pays if vet care if needed, what about liability for the fostering family if the parrot should become ill or pass away through no fault of the hosting family. Just curious, my luck I volunteer for something and get sued! LOL Great idea and congrats on your love of the little fids.

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to Theresa and Joni for all the hard work they are putting into this and for spreading the word. And a HUGE thank you to all of you who have offered to help us with this!

Hi Sue,

We do have a contract in place that we are working on. It does stipulate that should the bird pass away or become ill through no fault of the foster home caregiver, that the foster home is not liable. Vet Check and vet care is to be paid for by the owner of the bird and is mandatory before the bird can enter into a foster home. Food and Cage must be provided by the owner of the bird and the duration of foster does not exceed more than 6 months.

6 months, generally speaking, should be plenty of time should the birds owner need to find new housing or whatever the change in their life may be. The contract also states that if after the 6 months expires and the owner does not come back for the bird or does not want the bird any longer, sole ownership reverts to the foster home at which time the foster home can try to find the bird an approved home or they may chose to keep the bird.

We are still making some changes to the site and will have that information added by the end of the weekend along with a copy of the contract in word format. Theresa and Joni are working really hard on this with me and the changes should be completed soon

Kelly

What a WONDERFUL idea!

I could volunteer only if I can be particular what I take in. Hubby isnt really much of a bird person and he gets aggitated with the noise level sometimes. He is good for somethings but this isnt really one of them. Id have a Macaw if it wasnt for him. Although I would consider one to get the experience and to learn whether I would really want one of my own. He can wear earplugs or go downstairs.

My husband likes the larger birds (just like me!). So the answer to your question is "Yes", you do have the option to turn down birds that may bother your hubby.

The contract is under revisement at the moment and hopefully will be on the site by tomorrow. I will finish editing the website this evening and upload the corrected version. It will always be changing as we get new photos and videos of the foster birds that we all take in. I look forward to working will all of you

Is that the amazon we were discussing ,or a different one.? What kind of amazon is it?

What an amazing thing you guys have put togehter!! While I can't be a foster for your group now (apt living) I hope that it is successfull enough that it's still around when i can!!! maybe I can help with transportation sometime?...I will def be following your site! although with my luck any foster that came in the owners wouldn't take back and i'd end up with a bazillion birds that i fell in love with!!! LOL

My suggestion has more to do with the technical side of things to help you show up better in the search engines.

Looking at your page code, I noticed that your meta tags are limited to:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<title>TK</title>


You should add more to the "Title" tag, add a "description" tag and a "keywords" tag using the following criteria:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<Title>maximum number of characters 80 including text, punctuation, and spaces.</Title>

The exact wording in this tag should be on the visible page as close to the top as possible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

<META NAME="Description"
maximum number of characters for this tag is 200.

When writing your META tag description, select the most important four or five keywords per page. Write careful 200 character max sentences and phrases, targeting the most important words contained on your Web pages. When you are writing the META tag descriptions, try to eliminate as many filler words as you can to make room for your keywords.

The exact wording in this tag should be somewhere on the visible page.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<META NAME="Keywords"
should not exceed 20 words.

Do not use the same keyword tag in all your pages. You should create a primary tag to use in your home page; then copy it to other pages and move terms around in the tag.

A common mistake made within META tag keywords is repetition of words. A good rule of thumb is never insert the same word twice even if you're using different variations or separation with commas. Your Web site keywords should not exceed 20 words.

All the words in this tag should be somewhere on the visible page.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After that's done, go to dmoz.org and submit the site to the major search engines. My category suggestion would be to go directly to http://www.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/add.cgi?where=...es_and_Shelters and submit it there.

The dmoz database supplies all the important search engines so you only need to submit in one place (i.e. dmoz). Saves a lot of time as opposed to going to each one individually.

I don't know html very well and use FrontPage to create and make the pages. I could never grasp the html codes, hence using FrontPage. I will play around with this a bit and see what it does. Thanks for suggesting this and I will give it a go

Kelly a.k.a. Bernermom

"All the words in this tag should be somewhere on the visible page."
I just wanted to clarify that in the "keywords" tag, the keywords shouldn't be just a list of words on the page but should be individually interspersed in the sentences on the page.

I was just reading the thread and wanted to congratulate you on such a wonderful idea! I am not in the financial situation to help at the moment but I would def. be willing to help in the future! Good work everyone