Fostering the Less Fortunate Dogs

06/03/2023

One of the hardest things about being a foster is finding out that your foster dog may not be adoptable. You see their potential and love them as if they’re your own. You start to picture what their forever family might look like and you know that every day is another day closer to finding that perfect fit for them.

Sometimes though, you learn things about your foster that completely destroy the possibility for that “happily ever after” that you have envisioned for them.

Unfortunately that seems to be the case for sweet Casio. When he came to our home, we thought that he just needed to get over a severe case of kennel cough. He was clearly not feeling well at the shelter and we figured some time in a home with some one-on-one attention would fix it. But it didn’t get better. It got worse. We rushed him to the emergency vet, expecting to leave him there for several days while he received oxygen for what seemed to be pneumonia.

Pneumonia would have been treatable. We could take care of it and then we’d be on our way to getting him adopted.

We left the vet with a diagnosis of Mega-Esophagus. We weren’t even a little bit prepared for that news and it has all but eliminated his chances for adoption. Who wants to adopt a dog that they have to hold upright for 30 minutes 2-3 times per day for their meals jello-cube water? Even worse, how much longer will he have before he drowns on his own drool in his sleep? We are going to keep him as comfortable and happy for as long as we can while we work with the shelter vet to determine why this happened to him. He was not born this way.

I often feel like I have “bad luck” with my foster dogs. But I think the dogs that need us the most, seem to find their way here. Even though they may not always have a “happy ending” they find a safe place and a loving family with us until it is time for them to move on from this world. I think that’s actually a gift. Not bad luck.

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05/03/2023

I’m back after a long hiatus! Life got SUPER busy for a little bit and I had to set social media aside for a while. I never stopped fostering but I had a couple of very long term foster dogs and didn’t have anything too exciting going on for a while.

I have a new job now and I’m a foster coordinator for a fantastic rescue in my area! I’m so excited to be able to take what I’ve learned as a foster and help others with that knowledge.

Pictured below is my current foster, Casio. More info on him to come soon! ❤️

03/03/2022

Welcome to our foster family Tripper. I hope that your stay here with us will give you the healing time that you need. I know your dad is watching over you every step of the way. ❤️

Just a few months ago, Tripper’s owner passed away from cancer and he was left alone in the home. The neighbor made sure that he was fed and let out to use the bathroom every day but they knew he needed somewhere else to go where he would be loved one daily once again. Unfortunately, Tripper is blind in one eye and is incredibly scared of life outside of the home he grew up in. He had a foster before us and unfortunately it didn’t work out. The foster was a little too inexperienced with dogs that are this scared and stressed and it made things much worse for Tripper. He needed to leave the other foster immediately and I knew I couldn’t let him be in limbo again. I went and picked him up and was shocked to find a very large, 100+lb dog. I walked in, expecting a 50-ish lb dog! The poor dog had to be picked up and put into my car and was visibly terrified. Until he is ready for more, he is handled as little as possible. He spends most of his day, comfortable in his kennel while he adjusts to the sounds and smells of my home. I hope that by giving him all the time that he needs to settle in and learn that we aren’t scary and the world isn’t scary, that he will be ready to open his heart for a new family.

He has a vet appointment tomorrow afternoon to hopefully confirm how limited his sight is. I have a suspicion that his sight is more limited than just he blindness in his left eye. In the meantime, we are doing what we can to limit the amount of visible stimulation that he has to experience while he is here until he decompresses. We’ve got a long road ahead of us!

These two pictures were taken in his original home. I don’t feel that it is worth stressing him out to get updated pictures of him at this time. ❤️

02/03/2022

I got an update on Octavius today and it was even better than I could have expected!

"He is doing fantastic. My face hurts from laughing and smiling so much . . . What a fantastic joy. Thank you . . His name is "HANK" "

I'm so overjoyed at how much his new owner seems to love him and his personality. He was an oddly difficult puppy to find a home for and although his personality was a little "difficult" at times, his personality was never the reason that his adopters would back out. I heard everything from, "My downstairs neighbor can't stand hearing a puppy cry at night" to "We decided we don't feel safe with a pitbull mix in our home.". Every time that I had to go back and pick him up from his former adopters, I would cry. I love every single one of my fosters as if they were my own children. I want nothing more than to see them succeed and watch them grow in their forever homes. To have someone look at him and not see the same things or to know that they don't feel that he is worth their time or trouble, was painful for me.

As upsetting as it is to have adopters back out, I very firmly believe that things happen for a reason. I couldn't ask for his adopter to be MORE perfect than they are and I couldn't ask them to love him any more than they do. For that, I am forever grateful. For the adopter and for the fact that he wasn't placed in those other homes that couldn't possibly have ever cared for him as much as his new home does.

Congratulations Hank / Octavius! I love and miss you buddy but I hope that you don't miss me at all. Love your new owner as fiercely as you love your food. You both deserve it.

28/02/2022

28/02/2022

28/02/2022

If you’d like to help me and/or the rescues that I work with, please consider fostering or adopting a dog in need. If you’re willing to open your hearts and not able to open your home, please consider volunteering or donating to us. ❤️

I personally spend a large amount of money out of my own pocket to care for my foster dogs. I do what I can to take as little as possible from the rescues that I work with in order to reduce the load of requests for assistance from them. I provide all bowls, crates, treats, supplements, cleaning supplies, collars, leashes, blankets, pillows, beds, toys, and grooming supplies that my fosters could need. This means that the more dogs I have in my home, the more that I need some of these items. The rescues are in need of these items as well for the same reasons. Regardless, if you support one of us, you’re supporting both of us. ❤️

The link tree on this post will bring you to each rescue’s websites, as well as Amazon wishlists to donate items directly to me and the rescues.

Linktr.ee/fosterdog

28/02/2022

Our girl Holly has come SUCH a long way from the skinny and infection ridden girl she was when she first came to us. She is also officially, our very first foster fail. She is so amazingly sweet and gentle with every animal and person that she has come across and she fits in so well with our household. She seems to enjoy the chaos as much as we do and we’re so excited to watch her continue to blossom as she realizes that she’s here to stay.

Please consider donating to the rescue that found her and completely covered her medical costs. Although they specifically focus their rescue efforts on Great Pyrenees, she captured the hearts of the rescue founders and they just couldn’t stand to see her struggling. I can’t thank them enough for everything they have done for this girl.

28/02/2022

Little Licorice was with us from November of 2021 until she was adopted by a wonderful couple in January of 2022. She came into our home a very shut down, mostly feral puppy. She was about 5-6 months old and had never been apart from her three siblings until we brought her home to foster. Her confidence was very heavily rooted in her siblings and the moment that she was alone, she became very shy and scared. It took her a month in our home before she was comfortable coming out of her crate for anything other than food and to use the bathroom on potty pads. Once she was comfortable with us, she trusted us so wholeheartedly. She went from a scared little puppy who didn’t even trust other dogs (aside from her siblings) to a confident, happy-go-lucky girl who now lives with two other dogs in her new home. She has since been renamed Pippa and we know that she is so incredibly loved and spoiled in her new home. We still love her and miss her like crazy but we hope, for her sake, that she never needs to stay with us ever again. ❤️