Jen Henry has been an animal lover since kindergarten when she rescued her first stray cat. Shadow became her pet for the next twenty-one years. While in college studying architecture, Jen worked as a kennel technician in a veterinarian's office on the weekends as a way to spend time with animals. At this time, she fell into fostering accidentally when she found two six-week old kittens outside her apartment. Since she already had Shadow, she took the kittens to a shelter, but was told that they would be euthanized because they were too young for the adoption process. At the time, Jen was not aware of this policy, typical of many shelters, and (of course) took the kittens home to foster them until they were older.

 

After Shadow passed away, Jen began fostering regularly, becoming increasingly aware of the issue that many shelters face: being forced to euthanize adoptable pets who just need a little more time or care before finding their forever homes. She enjoyed fostering so much that she was convinced to leave her career as a healthcare architect to pursue that of a pet sitter. This career change allowed her to focus all her energy on animal care and offered flexible hours to support foster cats. And thanks to the support and encouragement of wonderful family and friends, Jen has been able to pursue her dream of a career working with animals.