Our adventures as a foster dog family
Every dog deserves a good home. I believe that. But some dogs deserve a little bit more.
Abby, for instance.
Although she can’t tell us (and certainly she doesn’t seem to hold any of it against anyone), but she has had a rough go.
Continue reading “Every Dog Deserves a Good Home”
Abby is still here. And it’s just not fair.
She’s no longer living on a chain (yay), but she is confined to one room much of her day. She can see the other dogs, hang out with our foster cat, and watch the activity out her window, but she’d much prefer to be with a person.
Abby is a people-dog. She loves people – all kinds, all sizes, all attitudes. She isn’t discouraged by her predicament, but I am.
Continue reading “Looking for Your Next Best Friend?”
Haven’t you always dreamed of a dog you can take with you everywhere? I’ve got one for you!
Abby is the most portable foster I’ve had in recent memory. She simply loves a good outing.
I can’t help but think that if my two foster pups were scruffy or curly or smaller or younger, or this was a year ago, they’d be snapped up by now. Instead, these two housebroken, crate-trained, people-friendly, lovely-on-a-leash dogs are spending long lonely days in their crates in my future foster cottage.
Often when you first bring home a new foster dog (or two), the dog is still stunned by its new situation, maybe feeling queasy from the recent dewormings and vaccinations, so they are not themselves. It’s a mistake to assume that the compliant, easy-to-deal-with dogs you first bring home will still be that way a week or two into their stay with you.
I’ve fostered over 200 dogs now, and am wary of that honeymoon period. So, I’ve been holding my breath, wondering if Abby and Bonnie (A&B) who had been so quiet and easy their first week with me, would continue to be once they got comfortable with their surroundings…..
Continue reading “The Honeymoon is Over”
Melissa Chan wrote in an article for Time magazine last week, “a surge in pandemic pet adoptions offers opportunities for criminals to seize on nationwide demand and shelter shortages…”
People are so desperate for French bulldogs, one small private investigator in Nebraska who specializes in missing pets says calls have increased 60-70% in the past 18 months, averaging 3-5 requests a week.
Reading the article, I could only shake my head. It seemed to me Chan was writing about another world altogether. It wasn’t the news that so many pets are being stolen—that is individually tragic—but it was how she so breezily tossed off the phrase, shelter shortages, as if it were fact.
Continue reading “What ‘Shelter Shortages?’”
Smart dogs are just harder to deal with—same goes for smart children. Mia still has no applications, but that’s not her fault. She isn’t a simple dog.
She is clever and energetic and totally in the game. She doesn’t miss a thing—my glance her way while working will bring her to her feet, she’ll nudge my hip as if to ask, “How can I help?”
Continue reading “Of Bite Addendums, Smart Dogs, and Transparency”
Normally when I bring home a new foster dog there is an extended shut-down period – a time when the new foster is kept away from the other dogs, spends a lot of time in her crate, is kept on a leash all the time even when out of the crate (and confined to the kitchen). This generally lasts one to two weeks.
We started down that path with Fanny Wiggles, but Continue reading “Member of the Pack”
The past two weeks have been very hard. I keep expecting to wake up feeling better one day, but I don’t. There is a heavy sadness that hangs over me and weighs down my days. Grief hits me in repeated waves throughout my day. Pretty much everything in my house is a trigger. I miss my boy.
The foster dogs are keeping me busy and preventing me from hiding in my room with my grief, but I wish they would find their homes. I worry they can sense that my love right now is hollow. I am operating by rote.
Desperately searching for answers or any form of peace, I have Continue reading “I Need To Be Clear About This…Pit Bulls Are Not Dangerous Dogs”
Over the weekend, Nick posted a Beware of Dog sign on our driveway.
He did it in response to the fact that two of our neighbors were burglarized, but he also did it because legally it’s a good idea. You should be aware of my dogs.
It’s a sign we should have posted long ago since Lucy bit the UPS guy and Gracie tried to bite the Fed Ex man (and bit me instead when I stepped between them). And now Frankie Continue reading “Beware of Dog/s?”
Another Good Dog™ 