OK, refill your coffee. This is going to be a long and rambling one, LOL!
I adopted my beloved little Katie almost two years ago. When I adopted, I joined the rescue group's Yahoo Group. I'm glad I did, because I've gotten lots of good advice as a new dog owner (and for me, but not DH, a first time dog owner!) I've also gotten an education about what it takes to rescue dogs like Katie. I know that one constant issue is the lack of foster homes. I've been thinking about fostering, but I have some concerns and I wanted some feedback.
Money would not be an issue, as the rescue pays of all medical care and we can afford to feed another small dog. Time, however, might be. We are a two income family. Katie does fine with this, because we work slightly shifted work schedules, and we give her lots of attention when we are home. But, if we had another dog, would we be able to give both enough attention and affection? Katie was very easy in that she was already house trained and leash trained, and took well to training. But, she did need training and attention to integrate into the household. How would we handle a dog that isn't house trained and who may need more of an investment to overcome issues Katie didn't have before being adoptable. And, Katie's care, physically and emotionally, CANNOT be compromised.
There's the logistics of it all. Katie is crated while we are away, because she has been destructive in the past when left alone. We can now leave her for an hour or two, but I'm not sure if she can be trusted out of the crate all day. Do we crate both dogs in the same room? Different rooms?
How would Katie react? Would she be jealous? Would she like having a pal? How would she deal with making friends with a dog, who is then suddenly gone...or am I anthropomorphizing too much?
And finally there's the risk of foster failure. It wouldn't be a bad thing to have another dog, but that would be the limit of what we could do. Some of the foster moms have multiple dogs, but if we foster failed, I couldn't take in more and I'd be right back where I am now, hurting for the ones we can't save. Then again...am I going to be able to NOT foster fail?
As you can see, I'm not ready to do this yet, but I'd like some feedback about whether you had the same concerns, and how those got addressed.
Hi Katie's mom, I'm a foster mom to pugs and have been doing this for 4 years - I've also done "jail" pick-ups, transports, owner surrenders, home visits, etc. There are many services you can provide/help with for rescues that don't require fostering if you feel that you might not be able to take a dog into your home, kwim? A friend of mine in our group only does transports, she said it would be too heartbreaking for her to foster.
I can try to answer some of your questions but they'd really only be based on my experiences :) I've fostered about 20 pugs now, at the very least. Some for a few days, up to my current one which has been since 12/07. Unfortunately, he is a senior pug and no one wants to adopt an "old" dog :( I have fostered singletons and pairs. I have only had one foster failure (I believe he was my 5th foster assigned to me) and that's b/c it was love at first sight. I didn't even "know" him but the minute he walked up to me - bam! I fought it for 3 weeks, however, the mere thought of someone adopting him just about killed me LOL! Our rescue org is overrun with incomings right now but we can only have one foster at the moment (we also have 4 pugs of our own). I do take ER ones if needed on a temp basis. It's just a really full house!
Ok, your Q's. This is how it works with my rescue so this is the only way I know how to answer them, I don't know if the rescue you're considering is the same, k? When I signed up to foster, I worked FT so was very specific about what type of pug I could foster. Meaning, we couldn't handle special needs (e.g., medicine around the clock), we needed a house-trained one as we didn't have the time to commit to training one ourselves, the pug had to be child-friendly (our child was 5 yo at the time), etc. The rescue understood that DH and I were gone 40 hrs a week and had a small child at home and accommodated us. We had 2 other dogs at the time who had no problems with other dogs so that wasn't an issue but it wouldn't have to be an issue with the foster as well, kwim?
Some of our fosters came with a crate and some didn't (the rescue provided one if you needed it). Some of the fosters needed the security of their crate and others just liked to sleep on the dog beds we provided. Our yard is fenced and has dog doors so they have 24/7 access in regards to potty. Every situation is different - it's just really hard to say until you're in it. There were two times I had to return rescues. The 1st was b/c it was a puggle and the beagle really came out and he howled constantly. Even all night long. I only lasted 3 days, esp before the neighbors mutinied. The 2nd was with a very alpha pug girl who just terrorized my kids to no end. Again, 3 days.
I honestly thought I would be foster failing left and right - DH was not onboard with fostering, let me tell you! But it has been very rewarding. If you have any other questions or anything else, just let me know!
Thanks! I hadn't thought about the fact that my group would be able to match me up with a foster that would fit my life, I guess because some of our fosters are taken out of high kill facilities and we don't know what they are like before they enter the group. But, we also get a lot of dogs as owner surrenders. (It's a small dog group, and we get a lot of aging parents.) I've shared so much about my life with Katie that they'd know what I could handle.
Katie is more of a people dog than a dog's dog. I'm not sure how she would interact with a foster or if she would bond, and get upset when it was gone. Perhaps I could volunteer to keep a dog while a foster mom was on vacation, and see how Katie reacted before I jumped into fostering with both feet.
I've put my name out to do home visits, and also answer any concerns potential adopters might have. DH also is a private pilot, and just bought into a plane partnership, so transport would be a definite possibility.
I'll keep praying about it and letting the idea percolate. I have a feeling that if it does happen, it will be a case of the chair of our rescue posting a pic and my heart just knowing I'm supposed to be that one's foster mommy!
I know that, whatever you do, it will be the right thing.... I know that I would never be able to foster....I would definitely "fail"...LOLOL....
But, you would be doing a wonderful service. Especially in these hard times, shelters/rescues are so in need of foster families.
And, yes, one dog will surely capture your heart. When we lost my beloved ^Valentine^ I thought it would be a very long time before I could give my heart to another dog. All it took was Cleo's sorrowful eyes peering at me through the bars of the shelter cage to help her find a small "in". It did take a while for me to fully bond with her, but now I wouldn't trade her for the world.
Bless you for even considering becoming a foster mom...and good luck....
