On paper, Gabby Flores’ title is Animal Flow Foster Associate. In reality, she jokes, it means “we dip our fingers in just about every department.”

“We’re foster,” she says with a smile. “So we’re always asking, ‘What can we do to help?’ We’re looking at animals on site who aren’t doing great, figuring out who needs extra support, and then coordinating with medical, behavior, adoptions, and rescue to keep them moving forward. You kind of have to treat every animal as a person—with their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions—and then build a plan from there.”

That “plan” is what HSSV calls animal flow: the path a pet takes from intake to foster, through medical and behavior, and ultimately into an adoptive home. Gabby and her teammates sit right in the middle of that pathway, quietly connecting dozens of moving pieces so animals and people can find each other.

And they don’t do it alone.

Alongside staff like Gabby are volunteers like ChiaLing, who arrived at HSSV at a moment when she was looking for hope—and ended up becoming a key part of the foster support system.

Building a New Life, One Cat at a Time

Just a few years ago, ChiaLing moved from Taiwan to the Bay Area for her husband’s job. She left behind her family, friends, and career.

“It was time to build a new life here,” she recalls. “I only knew a few people—including my husband. I wanted to find something meaningful to do.”

One day, a friend invited her to HSSV while looking to adopt a cat. That first visit changed everything.

“I was surprised,” she says. “This is definitely the best shelter I have ever been to. Every animal looked happy, healthy, and comfortable. They had toys, food, water, and people spending time with them. You could tell staff and volunteers treated them like pets, not just ‘stray animals.’ It really touched me.”

Back home, she’d always wanted to help animals, but work left little time for anything beyond donations. Here, she suddenly saw another way to give back.

“This was my chance to do something hands-on,” she says. “I applied to volunteer.”

She started with laundry. Then she was introduced to the Foster Animal Vaccination Station (FAVS) and eventually to Gabby.

The Center of the Flow

For Gabby, animal welfare wasn’t always part of the plan. She studied geology and worked as a cider maker before a layoff nudged her toward something new. When she saw the opening at HSSV, the role caught her eye.

“I thought, I feel capable, and I’m down for anything. Let’s try it,” she says. “I didn’t realize animal welfare could be a career. Once I started, I learned so much in the first three weeks and just kept going.”

Today, Gabby’s days start by checking who’s on site and who might need foster support: medical cases that would heal faster in a quiet home, animals struggling with stress in the shelter, nervous dogs who need patient people to help them feel safe.

From there, it’s all coordination.

Rescue may bring in a transport of cats and dogs. Foster families sign up, sharing their preferences and limitations. Gabby and her team match animals to homes, juggling factors like medical needs, behavior, energy level, home environment, and lifestyle.

“Matchmaking sounds simple on the surface,” she says. “But it’s a lot of asking questions and really listening. We’re looking for people who can be patient and flexible—especially with shy dogs or animals who’ve never lived indoors. If someone is a runner, maybe they’re a great fit for a higher-energy dog. If someone works from home, they might be perfect for a more sensitive animal who needs a lot of company.”

Once an animal is in foster, Gabby and the team stay connected. They schedule spay/neuter surgeries and medical rechecks, loop in the behavior team if challenges arise, and coordinate next steps with adoptions.

She points to Myrtle, a small pug mix with a long medical journey, as a recent example.

“She needed a big surgery to open up her airways,” Gabby explains. “Our team stayed with her through the whole process—getting her into foster, coordinating with medical, following her recovery. When she’s cleared, we’ll work with her foster and the adoptions team to figure out the best way to help her find her new family. It’s a long journey, but we’re in it with her.”

Some stories are shorter. Some are heartbreakingly complex. Others are joyful “foster fails,” where a temporary home becomes a forever one—like Nikki, the little dog who helped her foster family grieve the loss of a loved one and ended up staying for good.

“Those stories remind me why I’m here,” Gabby says. “I’m a big people person, so I love getting to be part of the foster parents’ journey and the animals.”

A Team Behind Every Foster

While Gabby’s work often happens behind the scenes, volunteers like ChiaLing are the friendly faces greeting foster families at the door.

Now a regular on the morning shift, ChiaLing helps turn on lights, restock supplies, check the appointment calendar, and prepare vaccination materials. When foster parents arrive, she helps with vaccines and provides gentle reassurance.

“I know my main responsibility is to take care of the kittens I foster and to help them be healthy, eat well, and be socialized,” she says. “But I also know I’m never alone. If something happens—if a kitten gets sick—the medical team is there to help. And when they are ready for adoption, the adoptions team helps find them a home. I don’t need to worry too much, because there is a whole team behind me.”

That support system is what keeps her coming back.

“Rescue work can be very tough,” she says. “You can see heartbreaking things, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But here, everyone works together. It’s teamwork that makes it possible to help more animals.”

Her foster experience extends beyond the walls of the shelter, too. Last year, she took home a small black kitten who struggled with ongoing diarrhea. His adoption was delayed, and she worried about his chances—older kittens and black cats are often overlooked.

“At the end, my husband totally fell in love,” she laughs. “So we adopted him. Now we have a black cat at home, and I can tell you—they are so unique. Funny, sweet, like little aliens sometimes.”

A Special Partnership

Ask ChiaLing about her time at HSSV, and one name comes up again and again: Gabby.

“Gabby is my favorite person,” she says without hesitation. “When I first came here, my English was not good, and I was not confident to speak to people. But she was always very sweet. She took care of me, taught me everything, and never made me feel bad for not knowing the words.”

Over time, with patient coaching and quiet encouragement, Gabby helped her grow more confident—both in her tasks and in her language skills.

“She works so hard,” ChiaLing adds. “If there is something that needs to be done, she will finish it. Even if it’s not her job. If she sees our space is messy, she cleans it. Whenever I need help, I call her, and she is always there.”

Gabby feels the same way about volunteers like ChiaLing and fellow FAVS volunteer Lily, who helps with data and tracking.

“FAVS is a huge support for us,” Gabby says. “On busy days, they’re the ones greeting fosters, helping with vaccines, organizing supplies, and catching things we might miss—like early signs of ringworm in a kitten. They help keep the whole flow moving.”

“We’re in Everything—So Animals Can Get Home”

If there’s one thing Gabby wants the community to know about the foster team, it’s how interconnected their work is.

“If you drew a flow chart, foster would be right in the middle,” she says. “We’re the pathway that helps with capacity, medical, behavior—everything that allows animals to move forward to adoption. We’re in everything, but we aren’t everything. We’re here to support every department and every foster parent so that animals can get where they need to go.”

For both Gabby and ChiaLing, that shared mission—saving lives and keeping families together—is what keeps them going on hard days and makes the good days even sweeter.

“When you help these animals,” ChiaLing says quietly, “they also heal you.”

And for every pet curled up on a couch somewhere—every shy dog learning to trust, every wobbly adventure cat, every once-stray kitten now loved and safe—there’s a web of people like Gabby and ChiaLing, working together behind the scenes to make that second chance possible.