05/24/2023
I’ve been fostering for 3 and a half years. It simultaneously is and is not a long time. I’ve had breeder releases, hoarder dogs, pregnant moms and their newborns, and a wheelchair dog.
I never bathe dogs the first day they come home with me. I try not to do it the first week if I can because it can be traumatic and they need time to decompress.
I’ve never had a dog come into my house that I felt like I needed to bathe immediately, until this one. It looked like the breeder tried to shave him down befor surrendering him, but that didn’t stop his feet from being caked with p**p, and his back from being…sticky. I could smell his rotting mouth from the other side of my car. This guy…was smelly.
He got his feet shaved and a deep soak. The bath water changed color immediately and I could see the particles of p**p loosening around his feet and coming off into the water. We had a solid 2 minutes before he decided he absolutely HATED the bath and I got him all rinsed off and out of the tub.
As much as he hated his bath, he must be feeling better because he started trying to play with my personal dog Larry, and he has decided that he has a personal mission to get his belly band off.
Breeder releases can be rough. But I can’t wait for this smelly boy to come out of his shell.