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The plight of abandoned dogs fills me with sadness, with rage, with a sense of helplessness.
So does that of the varying human conditions; but I connect better with animals. Human’s mistreatment and misbreeding of dogs is the reason that so many dogs sit in shelters, given a few days to live, and then euthanized. Euthanasia is often the less expensive choice than adopting dogs out., making the situation in some areas that much more desperate.
Most of these dogs are incredible family dogs given a chance. They’ll learn, play, and give unconditional love to the family that cares for them. With proper care, they’d be healthy, long-lived companions.
But humans over-breed. We design dogs. With thousands of dogs in shelters needing homes, we still pump out new puppies into the world.
And that’s ok, to want a pure-bred dog of a certain lineage for some reason. But the average family doesn’t care. They just want a cute animal that loves them and behaves well.
I foster because I know that every foster I bring into my home is one less dog on the “gas that day” list. That foster can stay with me as long as needed to find a forever home. That dog will be loved as my dog, fed, cared for, trained, and snuggled.
At the end of the fostering period, we’ll find that dog a great home, and I will tearfully hand over the leash to the new family, begging for pictures as the dog goes through life.
That is what I am going through now. Ben was my first foster through the National Pyrenees Rescue. He is a 3.5 old month Great Pyrenees/Labrador mix, and the first foster I had that got deathly ill while in my care. You see, Ben had parvo.
I have fostered and adopted out several dogs -and this is always very hard for me. I bond with these dogs, they’re in my care and treated as part of my family. Even a foster of one day becomes an important part of my life.
But Ben - Ben is a survivor. He fought, tooth and claw, to survive parvo, and he made it. After he was released from the hospital I nursed him for 4 days until his family was ready to come adopt him.
Ben was also one of the sweetest pups I’ve fostered. He was playful, sweet, loved to snuggle, lean, and give kisses.
This is really hard, the separation. It is easier, knowing the family he is going with, having met them, knowing that they rock. But it still at a high emotional expense, every single time.
Many people say to me, “I couldn’t do what you do. I couldn’t let the dog go.” And it is hard. It is very, very, very hard. I cry after every foster, and am in tears as I write this. But Ben would have been euthanized without the rescue’s care. If they had no fosters, they couldn’t have rescued him.
Without my fostering Ben he might never have been given a chance to live.
And there are more dogs that need me. A never-ending stream of shelter dogs who have been neglected, abused, abandoned. Because someone got allergic, or had a new baby, or had to move across the street, or because the dog jumped on the furniture, or leaned on them, or ate something that was left on a table. Or because the dog just wanted a few measly seconds of love.
And even if these sub-humans had never had a dog, backyard breeders would still be breeding. Dogs would still be left to roam un-fixed, able to procreate. There would still be thousands of dogs - puppies includes - languishing in shelters, or being dragged to the gas chamber.
So I foster because no matter how hard it is for me - it is one more life saved.
-Lisa, on April 16, 2011 at 1:26 pm