Fostering a dog named Blue

Blue

While Shadow and Abby play in the yard, I thought I’d take a minute to tell you a story.

About a month ago, we had a 4 month old lab mix puppy come live with us for a few weeks. Her name was Blue, and she was part of a fostering program set up by Pet Rescue by Judy, a local no-kill shelter. We had never fostered an animal before, but when my wife told me that Blue could either live in a crate for a month until she was old enough to get “fixed”, or come live with us, we decided to give it a chance.

After meeting Blue for the first time, I was amazed at how docile she was. This small 20 pound dog, at first glace, was nothing like Shadow, our large, rambunctious, chocolate lab. She was a nice addition to our family and an excellent playmate for Shadow. Being close to the same age and energy level, they could play on-and-off throughout the day.

Eventually Blue’s vet appointment arrived and she was off to get “fixed”. I think we were all a bit sad to see this day come, because we knew when she arrived back at our home, she would be eligible for adoption.

When my wife brought the puppy home from the vet, she was very tired and needed some rest. Thankfully, within a day or two, she was back on her feet, but couldn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to wrestle with her new friend, Shadow.

Then it finally happened, roughly a week later, Blue was adopted. This was a time of joy for her finding a permanent home, and sadness because she was leaving us. In the end, I think we were all “attached”, but we knew she had to go.

This adventure taught us a few things. First is that fostering a dog or cat, while they are waiting to be adopted, is a great act of kindness to our furry friends and I highly recommend it. It gave the dog time to become better socialized and adjust to living a life with other dogs, cats, and kids. We were also able to give the shelter valuable information about how she would react in a home with other animals and people that helped her get adopted. Second, this experience helped us better socialize our animals as they adjusted to, and spent time with, their new friend.

As I look out the sliding glass door, I see the eyes of the Shadow staring back at me. Time to go play…

Fore more information on fostering an animal, contact your local animal shelter or visit a pet fostering site like http://www.petfoster.org/.