Want a dog just for the holidays? These pets are looking for homes.

Last August, Chessie, a 12-year-old boxer mix, was rescued from a house of horrors in Monroe County, Pa. She, another dog, and several cats were found abandoned with almost no food or water, amid waste, debris, and the corpses of other animals.

You’d never guess that, though, from Chessie’s gentle, trusting manner.

“She’s just a senior dog who wants a comfy place where she can lay in front of the fireplace. She just wants to be loved,” said Gillian Kocher, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania SPCA, which has had Chessie all these months, currently in their Main Line shelter. She’s had no potential adopters. Older dogs are hard to place.

With so many animals in need, local shelter operators are making a wish this time of year for pets like Chessie:

A home for the holidays, even if just for a little while.

“During the holiday season especially, people are looking for something to do to warm hearts and give back, and taking an animal home, even if it’s for a short time, will certainly do that,” Kocher said, “not only for the people who do it but the animals who benefit from it.”

Three of the Philadelphia area’s largest animal shelter providers — ACCT Philly, which is the city’s open intake shelter, PAWS, and the PSPCA — are encouraging people to consider fostering one of their animals during the holiday season.

Even temporary fostering can provide animals with relief and enrichment, shelter providers say.

“Fostering for the holidays, which could be a couple of days or a week, really helps them just be a normal dog,” said ACCT spokesperson Mikayla Allen. “They decompress even leaving the shelter for a day because the shelter is a very stressful environment for them.”

Fostering, including short-term arrangements, also helps the shelters by freeing up much needed space. Feedback from the fosterers about the animals also helps staff get to know them better, which can assist in making adoption connections.

There are new, deserving dogs and cats being brought in every day.

Kane, a young Anatolian shepherd mix with a sweet temperament, was recently brought to ACCT. City firefighters were called to his Northeast home to do a welfare check on his owner. When they got there, they found the man was dead, and Kane was there with him alone.

Kane has been a bit confused and overwhelmed by shelter life, but his handlers said he warms up to people, is glad for a treat, and eager to lean in for a pet.

The shelters also need temporary foster help during the holidays to support some of their other programs.

Allen said ACCT is looking for people willing to temporarily foster their dogs that are up for adoption at Doggie Style shops when the shops close during the holidays so the pups don’t have to go back to the shelter.

In addition, the shelters need temporary foster care to relieve their long-term fosterers who are traveling over the holidays and cannot take their foster pets along.

Right now PAWS is in the midst of their Homes for the Holidays campaign.

“We call it pet sitting,” said Cory Topel, PAWS spokesperson. “Typically it lasts three to seven days. PAWS foster parents are traveling. They’re on the go, and this is a great option for either first-time PAWS fosters or maybe fosters who have tried it before but realize the commitment of a few weeks or a few months is too long for them.”

Jet, a 6-year-old calico purr machine, is a PAWS kitty who will be in need of a temporary foster home this holiday season. She receives liquid medications, but she will cuddle on the couch and binge watch TV shows. She also adores being brushed.

If you love kittens, PAWS also has some youngsters who could use a cozy home while they recuperate from various health issues. Ghidorah and Mothra, two 6-week-old tabbies, would love somewhere friendly and warm while they get over kitty colds. As would 8-week-old Siren and 5-month-old Hazelnut, who are both recovering from surgeries.

Temporary fostering doesn’t entail a major investment on the fosterer’s part. The shelters will often provide supplies like food, treats, and a leash and collar.

“Anything we can do to get animals out of the shelter, we count as a win,” said PSPCA’s Kocher.

Her agency’s shelters have been seeing longer stay times, even for puppies and desirable breeds that used to get adopted quickly. About six months ago, they began a program they call “test drive foster to adopt.” It allows people to foster a dog for two weeks and see if they want to make it permanent.

Some temporary fosterers decide they enjoy it so much, they foster long-term again and again. Others fall in love and adopt.

The folks at PSPCA are hoping that will happen for Ang, a friendly pittie pup who charmed the Flyers and their staff recently when he was brought to the Wells Fargo Center, decked out in a team jersey. He even brought the team luck; they won.

But at PSPCA’s Philadelphia rescue center, potential adopters just walk by his kennel. Brought in with stab wounds to his back, Ang has not adjusted to the shelter environment. It makes him stressed and jumpy.

“He’s a dog that would benefit from not being in a shelter,” Kocher said. “He should be in a foster home, whether that’s for a long period of time or just over the holidays, so he can show everybody how amazing he is and hopefully win over their hearts. He’s beautiful and he should be in a home.”