Humans aren’t the only ones struggling with the impact of this season’s weather storms.

Over 200 animals, mostly stray dogs or dogs lost during the storms, were brought to the Stanislaus Animal Services Agency in California this week and need homes.

“A lot of them are scared,” said SASA executive director Vaughn Maurice. “You can hear them crying and barking in the background. It really is a very sad situation.”

Staff are over capacity and working hard to reconnect the animals with their rightful owners. But with overcrowding and slowed adoptions due to the weather, dozens are being sent to shelters as far as states away.

One such partner shelter is in Idaho, where dozens of dogs were already sent to await new owners.

The problem with this transition is the agency does not have enough crates to transfer the animals safely and comfortably. They are currently asking the public for donations of any new or used crates, particularly for larger dogs. More than 70% of the agency’s dogs weigh over 50 pounds.

SASA is also seeking temporary foster parents to help with the influx of stray dogs.

Staff say adoptions have slowed down because of the weather and the impact it’s had on residents. The challenge is finding locals to take them in.

“I think right now there’s other communities that aren’t as inundated with stray dogs as what we’re seeing in Stanislaus County,” said rescue coordinator Chandra Looney.

With more rainfall coming this week, SASA staff expect plenty more animals will come into their care.

“Many of the dogs don’t appreciate being out in the rain,” Looney said. “Thunder and lightning can be scary to a dog.”

Maurice is also hoping people will volunteer with tasks as simple as coming and spending time with the animals.

“They’re beautiful animals,” Maurice said. “We love each and every one of them and we want to make sure they have the right outcome and find a good home as quickly as possible.”

Watch the video above for the full story.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

A 77-year-old man is changing the lives of Kentucky foster kids one suitcase at a time.

Don Pratt has been a single foster dad for 32 years, caring for more than 60 children.

Pratt said he saw kids coming to his home with only stuffed garbage bags to their names. For the past 20 years, he has donated thousands of suitcases across Kentucky.

One of his most recent deliveries took place Wednesday in Louisville.

"I'm glad I learned empathy and compassion, and I'm glad I got the energy to do it," Pratt said. "Everybody can do more than they think they can. It's just a matter of finding it and choosing to do it."

Pratt said the pandemic has made him even busier as he has traveled to nearly every county in Kentucky.

He has fostered 65 girls and boys over the years.

Pratt said in addition to suitcases, deliveries have also included duffle bags, backpacks and carry bags. They haven't been limited to foster kids, as well. Other deliveries have been made to those impacted by tornadoes or floods and a camp for kid victims of drug abuse.

DENVER, Co. — Taking children away from parents is a heartbreaking situation. Now, a federal law just put into effect Oct. 1 is hoping to prevent those moments.

The Families First Prevention Services Act aims to move away from placing children into residential facilities or group homes, and instead, keeps them in either a foster home or, preferably, their own home. In order to do that, federal dollars will be put towards services that can be accessed at the home, something that couldn't be done before.

National data says the most common reasons children end up in the foster care system are neglect and drug abuse. By providing treatment in the home, the hope is that it will heal the family unit from within.

"That could be for substance use. That could be for mental health issues that could be for really strengthening families and making more resources available to families to utilize while they're together in their home, rather than having to remove a child before you can access that funding for those support services," said Yolanda Arredondo, a child welfare professional.

She says the new law makes it so children will only be taken out of the home and into a group setting if it is absolutely necessary.

"Because that need is there not just a reaction to this family circumstance, that it really is a need to protect the safety and well-being of a child," said Arredondo, "and hopefully that's temporary and we can provide treatment-focused services to reunify the family as quickly as possible."

In Colorado, where Arredondo works, the state has already been implementing these new federal rules over the last few years. Right now, they serve 70% of children and families in their own home, 30% are with foster families. However, some advocates are concerned that since more foster homes will be needed, there won’t be enough places for children to go.

Arrendondo says she hasn’t necessarily seen that, but anyone interested in becoming a foster parent should seek out resources near them.

Hopefully, this new law means more families getting the help they need to stay together through the tough times in hopes of a brighter future.

Manuel Padilla is a foster parent to four teenagers.

“It’s not always hunky-dory, that’s for sure," Padilla said. "It comes with its good and its bad just like anybody else’s family.”

Normally, the four teens would be in the kitchen helping. He says they’re very self-sufficient. However, he says they can’t be on camera.

“It’s a safety thing," Padilla said. "It’s to keep them safe. It’s to make sure that people from their past [don't] get to know where they’re at.”

Padilla says he felt inspired to take on foster kids because he was one himself, in and out of homes since he was 3 years old.

He says he chooses to care for teenagers so he can give them a safe space to be their authentic selves. Two of the teens are in the LGBTQ community, and so is he. He wants to give them the home he never had.

“When I was 16 through 22, I struggled," Padilla recalled. "I struggled the most that I could have ever imagined. I mean, not knowing what credit was, the stability of a job and what it really meant, or you know, to survive in life, and so that’s where I wanted to make the biggest impact.”

When teenagers age out of foster care without a great support system, Minna Castillo Cohen says becoming independent is a struggle. Castillo Cohen is the director of the office of children, youth, and families at the Colorado Department of Human Services.

“If you’ve looked at the statistics nationally, young people who leave our systems without proper transition plans tend to have poor outcomes both in education as well as workforce," Castillo Cohen said. "They also find themselves homeless more than young people who had more intact families that had not been in our systems.”

Castillo Cohen says teens who aged out of the system last year were pushed into a pandemic world where stability was extra difficult to achieve. However, a federal pandemic stimulus bill passed last December made it possible for those young adults to return to the system for help.

“If a young person left during the pandemic, and they were let’s say 18 years of age, and they’ve tried to make it on their own and because of the pandemic were unable to, they would be able to contact the county that they live in and ask for additional services so that they could come back into foster care and reap the benefits of those services," explained Castillo Cohen.

Those services include independent living plans, food benefits, and workforce development. Although this federal help won’t last forever, Castillo Cohen says more and more states are making reentry for foster kids possible.

According to Juvenile Law Center, a non-profit, public interest law firm for children in the U.S., 38 states including D.C. currently allow for reentry.

If enough foster parents are able to establish a strong connection with teens before they age out of the system, Padilla says parents will see the progress their foster kids are able to make toward independence.

“They went from being in trouble--court cases and stuff like that--to being on softball teams, basketball teams, doing great in school,” Padilla said.

He says the experience is very rewarding and so worth it.

“I want to make sure that I can help them and prepare them to go out into the world before the world takes over them,” Padilla said.