The Foster Bingo Challenge is Live!
To ensure our fosters have access to support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, we partner with Doobert Connect. They act as our professional dispatch team, ensuring that every concern, from simple questions to medical crises, is routed to the right person at the right time.
When you reach out to the foster support line via email, text, or call, the Doobert team follows a specific script (similar to our shelter’s own protocols) to categorize your needs.
In order to use Doobert, you must know your foster pet's shelter name AND the shelter location you picked them up from to receive timely care!
Medical Emergencies: Doobert will let you know that they are contacting shelter leadership immediately to authorize transfer to an emergency veterinary partner. We work behind the scenes to coordinate with emergency vets and confirm they have space before sending you there.
Note: We aim for a rapid turnaround, but please be patient as we negotiate with emergency clinics on your behalf before approving a location. It is easy to get frustrated with the Doobert representative during this time, but they are just the messenger in these situations.
Medium-priority Concerns: Doobert will let you know that the team will reach out to you during open hours. Foster coordinators are notified internally to reach out within 24 hours to make a plan for your foster. This can include situations like getting medication for your foster if they are sick.
Low-priority Concerns: Doobert will give you a lot of guidance for the issue based on a script assigned by their team and our shelter resources. They will advise that the shelter will reach out within 3 days to take into account staff weekends, but usually you will receive a faster response. You're always encouraged to follow up over email if you're concerned. This can include your foster still coughing after finishing an antibiotic—but showing signs of improvement and good energy or having some diarrhea when they first come home from the shelter, but are otherwise seeming normal.
General Support: Other than medical concerns, Doobert is also available to help with any training / behavioral concerns you may have and may have advice on how to handle it short and long term. Your specific shelter’s foster team is notified and will reach out to you ASAP.
Supply Requests: If you'd like to request specific items, you're welcome to call them into Doobert, and a foster coordinator will reach out if/when we have them in stock!
Everything you share with Doobert is logged and shared directly with your shelter's foster team. We see your updates in real-time! If you share photos, we will see them too. Calls are recorded for quality assurance and training.
Communication Speed: Wait times to speak to a representative are typically under 2 minutes. If you are waiting longer, there may be an outstanding issue, so hang up and try again, or switch to texting for a faster response.
Prevent Blocked Calls: Georgia spam laws can occasionally flag out-of-state numbers, like Doobert's dispatch line, as spam. Save the foster support number to your contacts immediately to ensure your outbound calls are never blocked or flagged.
If you’ve been with us for a while, you might remember when our Foster Coordinators and Managers carried physical emergency phones around 24/7. While they loved being there for you, managing thousands of fosters led to extreme burnout. To be the best team for our people and our pets, our staff needs time to rest and recharge away from the shelter.
This partnership is a success because:
It Protects Our Team: It allows our coordinators to focus 100% on you during their scheduled shifts without being "on call" every night of their lives.
It Streamlines Emergencies: Only management authorized to approve emergency vet billing is paged after hours, ensuring the right decision-maker is looped in immediately.
Nothing Gets Lost (Even with Growing Pains)
Every text, call, and follow-up you send to Doobert is logged and shared directly with your individual foster team in real-time.
And so, while we admit moving away from direct coordinator lines definitely came with some growing pains as we refined our internal communication and expanded our day-to-day using a new software, this system ensures we have a complete, timestamped history of your foster pet's needs, which allows our team to make faster, more informed decisions for them.
Even if you don’t receive an immediate response for a non-emergency, your coordinator sees your updates as the very first thing in their normal workflow the following business day.
The people on the other end of the line are real human beings. Some of our Doobert representatives are international. This is a strategic business choice, as it means when you are calling with a crisis at 3:00 AM, the person answering is in the middle of their "afternoon" and is fully awake, alert, and ready to advocate for your foster pet.
Doobert reps follow strict protocols provided to them by LifeLine to ensure your foster pet gets timely, accurate care. Please be kind. They are your advocates and are working hard to get you the answers you need!
