Tag: foster dogs

adopters, dog rescue, Ehrlichia, foster dogs, heartworms, Humane Society of Shenandoah County, owner responsibility

When the Rescuer Needs Rescue

Cara Sue Achterberg

Rescuing animals can be is overwhelming.

I know that first hand, as does anyone in the rescue world. It’s part and parcel to the whole rescue mentality – you want to help and you can easily over-extend. You can’t bear for animals to suffer.

And sadly, lately, that proclivity to take on more and more has led to rescues turning into hoarding cases.

Two different situations came through my world this weekend that I could do nothing about, but a local wannabe rescuer’s overwhelm did spill into my world, or to be exact, my not-quite-finished foster cottage.

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foster dogs, fostering, training

The Moose Project

Cara Sue Achterberg

After three weeks with Moose, I’ve learned a few things about our big boy (who lost five pounds and is now only 87 pounds!).

Moose has no idea that he is enormous. He never uses his muscle or size to break in or out of places. Initially, we put him in our ‘tiger crate’, the giant steel dog crate we purchased after a previous foster broke out of (and in the processed destroyed) two large wire crates.

Moose wasn’t crate-trained when he arrived, so it seemed like the safest place to put him, knowing that at 92 pounds, he could easily force the wire crate open if he wanted to. This week I transitioned him into a regular crate and he’s never challenged it, even when left alone overnight.

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dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, training

Moose Moves In

Cara Sue Achterberg

I’ve tried. Hard. For the sake of my family and our new home and the holidays and my husband’s patience.

I’ve tried not to foster.

The plan we made (and I agreed on) was once we were settled in our new house, put up a dog fence, and renovated the cottage, then I would start fostering again.

So, we’re here. Mostly settled.

And the dog fence went in last week.

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adopters, fostering dogs, Pit bull

Every Dog Deserves a Good Home

Cara Sue Achterberg

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.

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adopters, cats, dog rescue, foster cats, fosterdogs, Pit bull

The Most Adoptable Dogs

Cara Sue Achterberg

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.

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canine health, dog rescue, fosterdogs, fostering, Texas

Rescue Comes With A Lot of Unkowns

Cara Sue Achterberg

I put off writing this post because I wasn’t sure what was really happening to my little foster dog, Bippity. I still don’t know, but I’ve decided to write anyway.

The not knowing? That is a big part of rescue.

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dog rescue, fosterdogs, no-kill, shelters, transport

Easy-Peasy Foray Back Into Fostering

Cara Sue Achterberg

We are certainly just easing back into fostering with this sweet pup. Serendipity is just about as easy as they come in terms of foster dogs.

Even after a three-day journey in a crate inside a van full of dogs, she arrived happy and friendly and pretty much ready for anything. Her enormous tail (which belongs on a lab not a petite girl like her) and her elongated body (I think she more resembles a fox than any other breed), wag ferociously at the sight or sound of any human being (and dogs too I would soon learn).

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Amstaff, dog rescue, fosterdogs, Long Term Dog, Who Will Let the Dogs Out

Mia’s Very Own Adoption Event

Cara Sue Achterberg

I’ve come to realize that pictures are more powerful than words. And video is even more powerful than pictures. I can write and write and write about a subject, but seeing it in action always has a bigger impact.

This month marks one year since Mia entered our lives. It astounds me that she is still here. I remember watching her with her puppies and with the people she met and thinking, “It will be so easy to get this dog adopted.”

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cats, dog rescue, foster dogs, fostering, hard to adopt, kittens, training

Seeing Them To Safety

Cara Sue Achterberg

What’s a girl to do when her puppy room is empty, the same foster dog has been here for months, her foster cats finally left (after more than a year with us!) and she’s itching to save animals?

Why take in a few foster kittens, of course!

Fostering kittens is a new venture. I know nothing about kittens this tiny. Lucky for me OPH has supplied me with everything I need, and their rescuer gave me lots of excellent advice. Ian is doing the bulk of the work—putting drops in their eyes, giving them their daily meds, feeding them, hanging out with them.

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adopters, cats, Dogs with Issues, foster cats

Practicing Self Control

Cara Sue Achterberg

The puppies have all gone home. Sigh. It was only two weeks, but it sure felt like longer.

Ian confessed to me that for the first time ever, he got attached to a puppy. Usually he views the puppies as work, knowing that more often than not, during a litter’s time with us the responsibility of caring for them will fall to him. (His mother being a busy, overcommitted woman and all.)

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