Social media and sharing your foster

   I am not old, let me just start off with that.  lol

  But growing up, my parents didn't have a computer in the home and we didn't have one when I was a kid until I was in the 6th grade or so. So social media wasn't even a "thing" back then.

  But NOW.....

   Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, (is MySpace still even around?).... it's everywhere! But you, as a foster, can use this and should use this for your rescue animals!

So, what can you do to help your fosters?

**Post, post, POST!! 

One of our fosters was a black lab mix puppy who ended up being adopted by a friend of mine through Facebook. I posted some pictures when we got them, included how old they were and their sex and then just kept posting small updates here and there. Turns out she was looking for a puppy for her daughter and she scooped her right up. Now I get to see updates as she grows and becomes a part of their family!

**Share adoption times/events

If your shelter or rescue is holding a special adoption event, open certain hours or extended hours or running specials on adoption fees, let your people know! Sometimes community members know there's a shelter in your area..... and that's about it. For instance our local shelter came under new management the past couple of years and has done a complete turn-around as far as how it's run, how animals are pictured and presented for adoption and how their events are advertised. Their Facebook page is run by an amazing volunteer and photographer but not many people know about it. Let your community know where the adoption events will be happening and that YOUR foster will be there!!

**Show and share the moments

Nothing, and I will swear by this, will ever sell a dog better (besides actually interacting with the dog personally) than personal candid photos. It's one of the reason the above volunteer at our shelter is so highly praised - she captures a real spirit, and sometimes goofiness, of the shelter dogs. Take photos of your foster playing with your kids, running wild in your backyard, cuddled up on your couch in the evenings. Take shots of you training him or her and how it's going. Then share the hell out of it!

**Selfies!

Now, I hate this word, I really do, but if you're a part of Instagram then a selfie or two is probably a part of your life as well. Round up your foster (or fosters if you're like me) and snap one or two right before your morning walk or maybe evening training session. Add some #foster  #adoptdontshop  #animalrescue  hashtags and spread the word. 

**Community Groups

Whether Facebook groups or Yahoo or the like, online community groups can also be a great newsboard for your animals. If you have a Pets for Sale group you can share pictures and updates on your fosters, letting them know the details on who you have available. Please, PLEASE be careful, however, and if you do have a potential adopter let them know that if they are indeed interested that they still need to go through your shelter or rescue and pay their fees and complete their paperwork.

  Now I'm sure there are more pages, groups, and websites available than what I have listed here, so use this as a starting point and go from there! Use what you know to your advantage to spread the word about your amazing foster animals and help get them into their forever homes.  :)

An unusual situation

   It's been a crazy  months around here! We took in 6 pit bull puppies to foster over a month ago, then we brought 5 of them back to be adopted out (We foster failed with the last one.... I know, I know, but she fit in so well with our mutts!)

Merida, our second foster failure.

  Then I brought home 4 more black lab puppies who ended up going back a few days later and were adopted very quickly. Next up was Jasmine, a 5 year old female pointer mix. She is still with us and is an amazing dog. A gentle giant.  :)  She loves our kids, long walks in the backyard and a good snuggle on the couch. She was adopted at the shelter's 3 day adopt-athon event held at our local PetSmart, even with her being heartworm positive!









Which brings me to my latest foster, Georgio.

From what we were told, he was brought into the shelter by a man who told them Georgio was actually the pet of a friend of his, who is a Marine..... who is overseas at the moment.


You read that right - his owner is gone. And apparently this guy just "didn't want him anymore" and decided to bring him to the shelter.

*crickets chirp*

I'm still on the fence about whether this guy is telling the truth or Georgio is actually his and he's just making stories up to get rid of him. Either way, poor Georgio is now paying the price.

He will be our first long term foster until the shelter figures out the truth and either finds the owner or Georgio is unfortunately put up for adoption. The only good thing is, he's such a great dog that if it does come to adoption he will go quick.

Fostering Puppies

      

   So, I have said before that I don't like chaos, but really I must thrive on it.  lol  After having Wrangler here for just over a week and seeing how well he settled in, I dialed up Beth to let her know we were ready to foster again if she needed.

   I came home with not 1, not 2.... but 5 puppies!  I wish I could have shared a picture of my husband's eyes when he saw the box marked puppies, then another of how he looked when he opened it up and saw how many were in there! They are a mix of white, brindle and black pit bull puppies and they're adorable!

   It was a bit nuts at first I'll admit. We have previously fostered puppies but it was only two at that time.  This go around, however,  I changed a few things.



   One, I let them decompress for a bit. Basically decompressing is allowing your foster animal, or rescue animal, some "alone" time. It gives them the chance to relax, compose themselves and get a sense of their new surroundings. We gotta remember that though we are excited and want to show them off, these guys have just come from a very loud, very chaotic place to an entirely new place and they have no idea where they are or what's going to happen. With these pups, all they knew was their small kennel at the shelter with mom so I found them a soft, fluffy blanket and let them sleep the night away.





   Two, there is SUCH a big difference when you are able to get them out of the house. Our last puppy fosters we had during the winter so going outside wasn't exactly fun. Now, as Spring is here and summer is not too far away, we make regular trips out to the back yard. A) this gets them out of the house and their crate for a change of scenery and B) we are teaching them that outside is where they need to go to go potty.

  The biggest difference and what reduced my anxiety about having so many puppies at once was having the use of an exercise pen.

Midwest 8 - Panel Exercise Pen

   A trip to our local Petsmart gave me this. ^^ It. is. awesome. 16 square feet, 8 panels, a door PLUS it attaches to a wire crate which is perfect because that is exactly what the puppies are staying in.

  What I did was pop it open, set it up in our dining room and attached it to the crate using the clips provided. The whole thing took less than 3 minutes to set up. Inside the crate is the blanket and 2 new squeeky stuffed animals and I leave the door open so they can easily come in and out. Outside in the actual pen area I have 2 puppy pee pads set up so they can separate where they go to sleep and where they go to the bathroom. I've read of others who swear to not use the pads, but I have not had a problem so far. This also allows them to come out at night and use the bathroom without needing me or my husband to get up. If they happen to miss the pad, our dining room is harwood so it's an easy clean up. If yours isn't, maybe a similar set up in the kitchen or any other tiled/hardwood room would work.


   They will be here for about 10 days or so before they head back to be available for adoption, but one little white pup is working her magic on not only me, but my husband! Could we be a 4 dog household? Only time will tell....   :)

Foster #7 - Meet Wrangler!

   So after a short 2 week break, the call came in last night. Our fostering coordinator read me off a list of her "preferred" dogs, mainly dogs who might need a little extra attention or long time residents who would do well outside the shelter, and told me to look them over on petharbor.com and let her know.

   It was a choice between 2 and once we met our first choice, we were hooked. Meet Wrangler!

 

 

   His story is a heartbreaking one. We have 2 military bases in town, one of them the largest on the east coast. Apparently, Mr. Wrangler here, looks too much like a pit bull to be allowed to stay on base with his family. The worst part? He was THE pet to a young autistic boy. And this dog was loved, you can just tell. All he wants to be is comfortable.

 

   He walked into our house, took a little bit to sniff around then laid down on our rug and took a big sigh. Our pit, Becca, laid down gently beside him and they stayed there while our girls finished their lunches. He is gentle with them and gets along amazingly well with Becca and Bowser, which is a welcome relief after the animosity between Becca and our last foster, Electra. I was warned he's a jumper and he proved that to be true within an hour of being home by scaling our 6 foot privacy fence around our backyard! I caught him mid act though, through my youngest daughter's window, and was able to make it to the front door in time to call him over. He hasn't done it since, so I'm hoping it was just him being a bit nervous and making a last ditch effort to escape.

 

    I have already begun mulling over him being our first "foster failure"....

 

UPDATE: He's ours!

 

    I just couldn't pass him up. This morning I woke up to his head cuddled across my chest as he laid with me and our other 2 dogs and I knew that was it. We are officially a 3 dog family.  :)

 

   We will continue to foster. That was actually something Beth asked when I called her to see if she could put  hold on Wrangler while we talked it over. Actually her words were "There is only one problem I see with you adopting Wrangler..... that you adopt too many dogs and won't be able to foster for me anymore!" I laughed and assured her we would still foster, but after this it would definitely only be one at a time.

 

 

Welcome home Wrangler!

National Puppy Day 2015

    It's March 23, which for those of you (like me) who didn't know, it's National Puppy Day!

From the Punchbowl website:

It's National Puppy Day! A woman named Colleen Paige declared the first National Puppy Day in 2006. The purpose of the occasion is to celebrate the unconditional love and joy that puppies bring to our lives, and to raise awareness about the horrors of puppy mills.

 

 

 

   So grab your pups and give them a squeeze or take a look at your local shelter/rescue's website and pick out a new friend for you and your family!

The dog we could not foster....

     Fostering is tough. And I don't just mean when it's time to let them go to their new homes. What do you do when you can't keep your foster in your home?

     Our most recent foster is a 10-year old female husky named Electra. Our local shelter received her after her owner's house burned down. She was brought in with 3 other dogs and a severe, but unknown skin condition that left many places on her body without fur. She became a small internet "celebrity" after our shelter shared her story and the story of a young man who raised money through a lemonade stand and used that money to sponsor her adoption fee. People from as far away as New Zealand had her about her and sent their well wishes.

    After seeing her update on her through the shelters Facebook page, I contacted Beth, our shelter's fostering co-ordinator, and told her if they still needed someone we would like to volunteer. The next day they did a skin scrape to rule out mange as the cause of her skin condition and I went down to pick her up.

    

 

 

     My husband and I brought our dogs out one by one to meet her and it did not go well. Everyone on a leash, we walked them by each other and allowed them to say hi, but both Becca and Electra lashed out, growing and posturing up. It was the same with Bowser, though less intense. She spent the rest of the night in a crate so she could get some rest and adjust to her new surroundings.

 

     The next few days, nothing improved. She was uneasy around our 2 girls as well, growling and staring at them sideways if they walked by and she was still lunging at our dogs through the crate. We had to alternate eating and going outside to go to the bathroom between the 3 of them, making sure they were either in separate rooms or they were being held. I quickly realized that this may be the first dog we weren't going to be able to foster.

 

     I called Beth and let her know what was going on. She was disappointed that it wasn't working out, but understood the problem. She said she would see what she could work up and let me know. A few days later she left a message saying a semi-local animal rescue had been contacted about taking  in Electra and we were just waiting on their answer.

 

 

     Well as of this past Thursday, Electra was off to her new home. Its a great animal rescue that's actually more like a rehabilitation center. She will be looked over and treated for her skin condition and her ear infections and anything else that can possibly be found. It broke my heart to see her go, but I tell myself it was for the best; being crated up all day in our home, while better than the shelter, was still no way for a dog to live. At least in the rescue she will have more room and a place to run.

  

    She is an amazing dog though.... just with a family/couple with no other dogs or young children. She has some life left in her and loves to just lay on the floor and rest or maybe cuddle up for a few moments for a head scratch. Just a bit more TLC and shell find her happy forever home, I'm sure of it.



Our First Foster

     I am really excited about starting this blog and continuing my own family's rescue and foster journey.


   We adopted our first dog, Bowser, last year (2014) in November, just a few weeks after buying our first home. As we were signing our paperwork, crossing our T's and dotting our I's, I took notice of our shelter's announcement board and the corner marked "Ask about becoming a foster!" After a brief description about the relatively new program, we left with the promise to return and fill out an application to start fostering. It would be almost a month later before we began.

   I got the call late in the evening from Beth the fostering coordinator. The shelter was at it's capacity and she asked if we would like to come down and pick up a dog to foster. It was a brief conversation and afterwards we packed up our 2 girls and Bowser and headed over.

   Ruby was one of the first dogs Beth showed us. She said she was a sweetheart, a gentle girl. After doing a meet & greet with 2 other long time residents, they brought out Ruby. She and Bowser went at it a bit, lots of "talk" but no bite, rough playing. She calmed down and cuddled up to my husband and our girls however, and we were sold. She was a long time resident of the shelter as well so we packed everyone up and took her home.

   She settled into our home and family with ease, like she belonged there. She was a gentle giant who loved rough housing with Bowser then settling down for a cuddle with our girls. She was our first experience with a Pit Bull and we were in love. How she had spent so much time at the shelter was a mystery.

   3 days later I received a call that there was a couple who wanted to do a meet & greet with her.

   Wait, wait, wait, what?!

   I'm not ready, that happened so quick, we haven't had time to work with her...

    She's not yours, you have to.

   We showed up to the shelter right on time that Saturday morning. As we walked her to the outside kennels I heard the woman gasp "Oh, she's beautiful!". I knew we were done.

   And it hurt.

   As they let both dogs get closer outside the kennel and finished up the details, I turned away from everyone to try and calm myself. I heard the wife thank the shelter volunteer and then thank my husband and I. By this time I was a mess and couldn't speak. As everyone moved inside, my husband followed to say good bye while I stayed outside. I admit, by now I was ugly crying and didn't want anyone else to see.

   It was tough that day for the next few after. I didn't realize how much it would be, even though I had been trying to prepare myself for it since before we even went to pick her up. Bowser and I cuddled up on the couch together and moped through it while my husband chuckled at how depressed we both looked.

  
   Since then we have fostered 4 other dogs and are waiting for the next call very soon since we recently heard our shelter is at capacity again. And though with each dog there is a little tug at my heart and a few tears I wipe away, each time it has gotten easier, especially seeing the difference from when they come into our home to when they leave. Our girls are still young and while they do get a bit sad when a dog leaves, my husband and I always explain that we still have Bowser (and as of just recently our pit bull Becca) who will be with us forever and need lots of love and hugs. We also explain how much they help the foster dogs by loving them, playing with them and getting them ready for their forever homes. By now, they're pros.  :) 

   My hope with this blog is to be a place to come to read and journey along with us while also being a resource for other foster families. From training tips to stories to commiserate with and PLENTY of pictures along the way, please, pull up a chair, lay a blanket on the floor for your furry friend and stay a while.  :)