Who here fosters?

[RandomWiktor]

I was wondering if any other AA members foster dogs? If so, I'd love to see pics and hear stories!

I have been fostering since I was a teenager and since moving to Alabama have averaged about 20 fosters a year, some years more, some years less, from short term stays to dogs like two of my current fosters who have each been with me over a year now.

Here are a few of my favorite fosters over the years:

This handsome dude was on the euthanasia list because he'd been mis-listed as a wolf hybrid. I fostered him short term then transported him to a rescue in Huntsville; he's since been adopted.

This is the first of five Malinois I've come to foster. She is actually a police K-9 now thanks to a great program in TN that places rescue dogs (of the right material, of course) with officers in counties that can't afford K-9 units.

This guy was with me for almost a year; I begged for months for a rescue to step up for him, finally sponsored his vetting, then his rescue kept stringing me along delaying his transport and finally backed out on him. I had to find him another rescue org and take him there myself, from AL to NY. What a mess. He was an AWESOME dog though, and if I had fewer of my own, I'd have kept him.

This girl (the one I'm taking the pic of, not the photobomber, lol) was probably my all time favorite and I cried like a baby when I had to let her go to her rescue. She came to me as a tiny pup with mange and several other serious conditions, and grew into just the most beautiful, loving, smart dogs.

Finally, this goofy guy, who had an adorable underbite and was for some weird reason with me much longer than his sisters despite being my personal pick of the litter. I found the three of them in a roadside ditch around Halloween and they were a super fun litter to foster, even though one of them was a "boomerang dog" and kept getting returned.

Anyway, fosters, who are some of your favorite past or current fosters, because I could go on all day if you let me. Share pics and stories!

 

[Moshimaru]

No pictures on my phone, but I've fostered a good handful of dogs and kittens since working at the shelter I work at the last three years, we're no-kill and have a high adoption rates so I either bring home a puppy or two for a week or so while they wait to get fixed, or the hot messes/stressed dogs not doing well in a shelter. Pirate - a small terrier mix that was fear aggressive but was an angel with me, eventually went to rescue but I think of him a lot, I should've kept him and it'll haunt me everyday. There's a puppy I should've kept, but if I hadn't I wouldn't have my puppy Ollie who is SUPER FUN and just all around good guy. Hazard was a pit bull puppy I brought home so my dogs could beat up and teach some manners (they're awesome with puppies). A few more naughty puppies thrown in there as well...

And there's the foster failures. Ollie is the puppy (well he's a year now). Nimbus was an overweight Schnauzer, skin and ear infections, owner died and the groomer/breeder didn't want her, she wasn't suppose to stay until one night I let her cuddle and that was it.. she also came 7 months after losing Tsuki and helped fill her loss. The most recent is Rooster, he's making me dig deep and remember all the behavior training I know - I've slacked off a lot over the years due to health problems.

Throw in sick kittens, bottle babies, and other cats in over the years as well. Sick and hospice guinea pigs and rabbits. I also take in stray and unwanted barnyard birds as well (chickens, geese, ducks, etc.).

 

[echobird]

I don't have dogs but I hope for a chance to adopt one in the future. I love that handsome cream and white one (flame point? Haha don't know if that's what you'd call a dog with those colors).

 

[RandomWiktor]

Moshimaru, that's great! Fosters are such a blessing to shelters. It's great that you're partnered with such a good one, too. The state of animal sheltering in AL is pretty dismal, so most of my fosters that come from shelters have been pulled by a rescue and are needing to recover before moving on to their ultimate destination. I know Maine takes in a lot of southern shelter dogs. Do yours come mostly from the community or from out of state?

I have done my fair share of cats as well (I currently have six kittens and three adult cats in foster, yikes!), and run a small animal rescue so I have a constant parade of rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, hamsters, etc. plus reptiles through the house.


Echobird, I don't know what you call his coloration either, but he was a positively stunning dog. Ice blue eyes, red ears and tail, white otherwise.

 

[Moshimaru]

Moshimaru, that's great! Fosters are such a blessing to shelters. It's great that you're partnered with such a good one, too. The state of animal sheltering in AL is pretty dismal, so most of my fosters that come from shelters have been pulled by a rescue and are needing to recover before moving on to their ultimate destination. I know Maine takes in a lot of southern shelter dogs. Do yours come mostly from the community or from out of state?

We do a lot of transporting in from southern rescues. It's nice to, because all their vetting is already done, behavior issues are already dealt with, and the dogs basically come to us, quarantined, and then put up for adoption and most of them (including the adults) are not with us for very long.

 

[RandomWiktor]

That's great! I know there are a lot of mixed opinions on moving dogs between state lines, but to us in the south it is such a blessing. Most of our local shelters are extremely high kill due to the sheer volume of animals and lack of qualified adopters (and that's with extremely lax standards and low fees). There are stray and feral dogs EVERYWHERE. It was such a culture shock moving from NY to AL and seeing starving dogs roaming the streets everywhere you go, roadkilled dogs every day, entire packs of street dogs hanging around stores, etc. Many of my fosters have been dogs that I've found, as are virtually all of my personal dogs.

 

[melissasparrots]

I fostered a sheltie once for a few days. Our little county shelter is good, but they didn't have room when a stray sheltie was found. Since I already had a sheltie, I fostered him. He found a home pretty quickly. It was interesting. I've never seen a dog that thought he needed to work so hard to be liked. A very sweet dog. I'm not sure if that is a trait of rescues in general or not. Unlike rescued parrots, this guy was practically begging someone to like him enough to keep him. If my sheltie at the time wasn't such a b!tch toward other dogs, I'd have seriously thought about keeping him myself. My cat was a foster initially, but I ended up keeping her.

 

[senorabarb]

I love seeing pictures of your fosters! I live near Atlanta and I foster for a rescue, Angels Among Us. Right now I have a smallish black dog. She was rescued from a hoarding situation with around 40 dogs in one house -- never let out. She had a litter of puppies, probably not her first, and they all died. She has gone through having mammary tumors removed, 2 month-long heartworm treatment, being spayed. She is terrified of men. Just as she was given the okay to be out of her crate (since March), my other foster gave birth to six puppies. It was her first time giving birth and my first time helping a puppy birth!


I helped her deliver the puppies. She bit the cord, and I cleared their mouth and nose. She licked them clean, except when they arrived close together, and I helped. A small puppy came out and he wasn't breathing. I held him close to keep him warm. Cleared his mouth and nose, gently rocked him, and held him upside down and gently hit the sides of his face, and he finally let out a cry!

Almost 4 hours passed between puppy #4 and #5. I was on the phone constantly with another Angel volunteer, and she said to call the vet. The 24 hr vet said to wait another 30 min and bring them all in if the puppy hadn't arrived. The puppy appeared after 20 min, and the next one came 15 min later. The puppies are the most amazing little creatures. They are 2 weeks old. They can be adopted when they are 8 weeks.

I have a small terrier type dog that I'm going to register with Angels as a foster. He was homeless, wandering around the neighborhood where a friend of my son lives.

I lost my 4 personal dogs to cancer, one the month before we moved here, and the other three over a span of a year. My two Rottweilers died from Osteosarcoma. My son'sAustralian Shepherd had Lymphoma,and my Shepherd mix had an abdominal tumor. She was 13 yrs old, but the others died too young.

We currently have 4 dogs. We rescued Bella, a Pit Bull, from a shelter the day she was supposed to be put to sleep. She is a complete sweetheart.

My son bought Blue, a big silly Pit Bull, for $20 from a homeless alcoholic. He had first given the guy $20 to buy food for Blue, but by the next day, he had bought beer, and Blue was scavenging in the trash, limping with a hurt foot. My son bought Blue, and we took him to the vet to get his foot taken care of.

Charlie and Lilly just showed up at our house in the back yard. We fed them and they stayed on. Charlie had poop caked into his fur everywhere. It took a lot of scrubbing to get him clean. He had been abused. He lay down in the back of my closet, and slept there, and he walked huddled into himself. We couldn't touch him for a month. He was scared of my son's boots for a long time. So sad. Lilly is a Puggle. Charlie is a hound.

I spend a lot of time with mom and the pups, making sure that each one gains weight each day. I was worried about the smallest one, and I often have had to move him up to his "lunch buffet." I bother
him to keep him awake, pulling his tail gently, etc,

Mom is basically a puppy herself. When I leave my bedroom door open, she goes out to play with the other dogs, and brings toys back.

 

[senorabarb]

 

[senorabarb]