The Decision to Foster
Things you should know:
1) Our retirement goal is to run our own dog rescue- buy some land out in Grays Harbor County, build ourselves a house and a kennel area and off to the races we go. (Once proper permits and tax filing status have been obtained.)
2) We are constantly considering a third dog. Even when we had Smokey and Moree, we would ponder it. Now that we have two much smaller dogs, it really seem inevitable.
Given those to things, we are seriously considering fostering.
While we talked about fostering for King County Animal Services, the biggest problem is most of the dogs they get in are Pits. Now, I think Pits are great dogs. Smokey was a Pit mix. But I have to take into account my current dogs. And I have Larry. Larry proved once again this week that there is no back down in him. This is not the most desirable trait in a dog, and I would have concerns about his attitude around an untested Pit.
And that’s the thing about King County-
Another option is Seattle Humane Society, which is where we adopted Larry from. Our experience there makes us think that they have the staffing to get to know us and only place foster dogs with us that will work in our household. Plus, it would be nice to give back to the place that gave us our Larry dog.
I am not saying we expect an adoption ready dog- adoption ready dogs should be in the shelter for the most exposure to those looking to adopt. But a shy or timid dog, a dog that needs to work on its manners or some training, preferably a dog who couldn’t kill one of my current two with a single bite (all I’m asking for is enough time to be able to break anything up)- those are things we can work with.
The biggest problem with Seattle Humane is that it is a 30-45 minute drive away from us (worse if traffic is bad). That adds to the time commitment and creates challenges for getting the dog to adoption events.
We have also considered fostering with Homeward Pet because a friend of ours already volunteers for them. However, they are even further from us than Seattle Humane, and other than knowing one person who volunteers there, we don’t have any experience with the organization.
And the final option is Old Dog Haven. It breaks my heart when senior and ill dogs get put into shelters because their chances of getting adopted are so slim. Organizations like Old Dog Haven make sure that these animals end up in loving homes for their final months or years. Of all the organizations, this is the one that pulls the strongest at my heart strings.
There are a different set of emotional issues at play here, though. With most fosters, the rub is in giving the dog up to another family to raise. With Old Dog Haven, that’s a possibility, but just as strong a possibility is taking care of a dog for months or even years and being the one to make end of life decisions. When we lost Moree and then Smokey, it was emotionally devastating. The question is, are we strong enough to purposely put ourselves through that again.
There are differences. We got Moree and Smokey each when they were about 9 months old. We had them both for over 8 years, and yet each should have had another 4-6 years in a normal life span- so they were our babies forever, and we still lost them too soon. With a dog from Old Dog Haven, you go into it knowing…
Our choice is most likely between Seattle Humane and Old Dog Haven. We need to sit down and have a long, serious conversation about what we want our goal to be- help a young dog get a new home, or provide a final home for an older dog. Which would we be a better home for? Which would be a better situation for our dogs?
I’ll let you know what we decide.