Animals & intake
Intake
Log a new animal in seconds. Fosterling gives you a few different ways to let AI do the typing -- from a quick photo and voice note to pasted notes -- so you spend less time typing and more time helping animals.
Open the intake form
From anywhere in the app, go to Animals in the left nav, then click AI intake next to Animal Records. The intake form opens as a slide-over panel.
Bringing in more than one animal at once -- say, from your old adoption page or a Petfinder listing? Use the Import button next to AI intake instead. See Animal records for how bulk import works.
A few ways to let AI do the typing
You can fill the form manually or let AI fill most of it for you. There are two AI-assisted paths inside the intake form, plus a separate tool for turning a screenshot or link into text.
Option A -- Quick Intake (fastest)
- 1In the AI intake slide-over, find the Quick Intake card at the top.
- 2Drop in a photo of the animal and record a quick voice note describing what you see -- species, approximate age, temperament, anything notable.
- 3Click Generate intake record. Fosterling transcribes the voice note, reads the photo, and creates the record with species, breed, sex, age, color, and temperament notes pre-filled.
- 4Review the pre-filled fields and correct anything that looks off. AI extraction is good but not perfect - always verify microchip numbers manually.
Option B -- paste notes and extract
Already have notes -- a surrender email, a walkthrough description, a voice transcript? Paste them into the Intake Notes textarea further down the form and click Extract details. Fosterling reads the text and fills in species, breed, sex, age, color, weight, microchip number, and temperament notes.
Option C -- manual entry
Fill each field directly. Required fields are marked with an asterisk. Hover any field label to see a tooltip.
Turning a screenshot or link into notes
There's also a separate Auto-fill from form or post dialog, opened with the Parse with AI button, for when what you have isn't clean text yet -- a screenshot of a paper form, a social post, or a voice note. It turns whatever you paste in into plain text for you to review, which you can then drop into the Intake Notes textarea and extract as above. It doesn't fill structured fields directly.
Intake fields reference
| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| species* | select | Dog, cat, rabbit, bird, or other |
| breed | text | Free text. AI fills this from photos or vet records. Mixed breeds are fine. |
| sex* | select | Male, female, or unknown |
| age_months | number | Estimated age in whole months. For very young animals, round to the nearest month -- there's no fractional entry. |
| color | text | Primary coat color or pattern |
| weight_kg | number | Weight is entered in your org's preferred unit -- Fosterling converts to kg automatically; no manual math needed. |
| microchip | text | 15-digit ISO microchip number. AI extracts from vet records -- always verify. |
| temperament | text | Free-text behavioral notes. Populated from AI walkthrough extraction. |
| intake_date* | date | Date the animal arrived in your care. Defaults to today. |
| photo | image | Primary photo shown in the adopter gallery. JPG or PNG, max 10 MB. |
Sanctuary and foster-only flags
If you run the Intake walkthrough, its purpose picker can flag the animal as a sanctuary resident or foster-only. Those flags show up as read-only badges above the profile fields while you're filling out the form, but they're not saved when you click Save -- they're a note to yourself, not a stored field.
Sanctuary is a real, persisted status -- it's just set afterward rather than at intake. Once the animal's record is saved, open it and click Add to sanctuary to mark it as a permanent resident that won't appear in the adopter-facing gallery or be matched to foster homes.
Duplicate detection
As you fill in the animal's details, Fosterling quietly checks intakes from the last 60 days for potential duplicates -- animals that match on name, species, breed, color, age, or microchip. If any look like a match, they show up as a list right in the form, each linking to the existing record so you can open it in a new tab and compare. Nothing blocks you from saving -- it's a heads-up, not a gate, so review the matches and decide for yourself whether you're looking at the same animal.
Lost pet cross-reference
As you fill in species, breed, color, sex, or microchip, Fosterling also checks your open lost-pet reports for a match in the background. Any hits show up live in the Lost-pet match panel in the sidebar, each with a score so you can gauge how likely it is. See Lost & found for how to handle matches.
Save and move forward
Click Save animal →. The animal is created with a status of In intake and a record page opens immediately. From there you can:
- Add medical records and vet appointments
- Assign to a foster home
- Add the animal to the adopter gallery
- Log behavioral notes
- The AI filled in the wrong breed. Can I correct it?
- Yes -- just edit the breed field directly. AI extraction is a starting point, not the final word. Any field, including breed, can be edited from the animal's record afterward too.
- I don't have a photo yet. Can I still save intake?
- Yes. Photos are optional at intake. You can upload one later from the animal's record page under the Photos & Videos tab.
- The weight is in pounds on the shelter paperwork. How do I enter it?
- Just type it in as-is -- the weight field follows your org's preferred unit (set in Settings), and Fosterling converts and stores it in kilograms automatically. No manual conversion needed.
- I accidentally created a duplicate. How do I merge or delete the extra record?
- Ask an admin or coordinator -- either role can delete animal records from the animal's record page (Settings menu, top right). Data from one record can't currently be merged automatically; note anything important before deleting.