Fostering four-legged friends

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Robin Ackerman, of 17th and McKean streets, is willing to do just about anything to help a sick cat or dog get back on its paws.

This includes transforming her living room into a mini-clinic in the middle of the night to aid a dying kitten brought over by a foster parent, PAWS’s Executive Director Melissa Levy said.

“Although it was obvious the kitten was extremely sick and wouldn’t survive, Robin made every effort to save him,” she said in her Difference Makers‘ nomination letter, “then ensured he was comfortable when it was clear he couldn’t be nursed back to health.”

Ackerman began volunteering for the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society more than two years ago before she was hired to run the organization’s foster program in 2008. She also spearheads its Spay/Neuter and Wellness Clinic, 2900 Grays Ferry Ave., which has provided more than 100 surgeries a week to area animals since opening earlier this year.

“There’s just such a problem in Philadelphia with homeless pets and overpopulation that I’ve never seen before,” Ackerman, PAWS’s Foster Care and Clinic Practice manager, said on why she is so involved in helping animals. “The first time I walked into Animal Control, I was overwhelmed.”

But her generosity doesn’t stop at the end of the workday.

“When there’s a cat that ends up in my backyard, I make sure to take it in,” the 28-year-old said. “I always have at least one foster cat. Right now, I’m rehabbing a kitten that has chemical burns that was given to us.”

All of the necessary supplies are stored at her Newbold home for whenever any of the foster parents — who have her cell phone number — have problems.

“If it’s an emergency, it doesn’t matter what time it is,” Ackerman said. “I’m always happy to talk to them and work out any issue.”

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