Fostering is a roller coaster

Or maybe it's more like bungee jumping... it yanks my emotions up and down, day after day.  Here was my day yesterday:

6:00 AM – Ziggy barks to let me know he needs to go outside. I get up, take him out, then tell him it’s too early to stay up and put him back in his crate. I deliberately don’t notice the torn up cardboard mess scattered among the dog toys on the floor, and I go back to sleep.

I believe Noelle made the mess then framed the cats.  It was not a good start to the day. 

7:00 AM – Remi barks to get me out of bed. He uses his “I need to go out” bark, but when I try to let him out, he runs to the kitchen and stands by his food bowl. So I feed Remi, Noelle and Ziggy, then go get ready for work.


8:00 AM – I can no longer pretend to ignore the living room floor, so I let the dogs outside and clean up the living room in relative peace and quiet. Then the dogs come back in and Ziggy is crated while Remi and Noelle are lectured to behave while I’m at work.

11:00 AM – I receive an e-mail that one of my previous foster dogs is very ill and medical treatment is not helping. She may need to be euthanized. I am very sad and decide I hate fostering.

6:30 PM – I leave work and head straight to PetSmart to pick up another foster dog. Shadow is Emma’s sister. She is sweet and a little bit scared to be going to a new home with a new person. She pants loudly and drools all over the car on the way home.

7:00 PM - I get her home and leave her in the basement where my husband Dave is watching TV. Then I go upstairs to take care of the rest of the animals.

8:00 PM- Dave comes upstairs and asks why Noelle’s food bowl is sitting by the stairs, filled with food. I told him she didn’t want to eat. He said maybe that’s because he already fed all three dogs before I got home. I realize I’ve been duped by Remi and Ziggy who both pretended they had not yet been fed. Dave asks me to keep the dogs quiet since he’s going to sleep. He works a 3:00 AM shift. I say I will do my best.

8:05 PM – Shadow, who is in a crate in the basement, begins barking. Remi, Noelle and Ziggy begin wrestling LOUDLY. I cringe, then go downstairs to see what Shadow wants. She is lonely and wants me to stay with her. I give her a rawhide to chew on and go back upstairs. I then give Ziggy, Noelle and Remi rawhides to chew on in hopes that will keep them quiet. That works for awhile. I take care of some cat chores, and eat a quick dinner of potato chips.

9:15 PM – Everyone has finished their rawhides. Noelle goes sniffing around Ziggy’s area of the couch, and suddenly a fight breaks out. I should have known better – apparently there were some rawhide “crumbs” left behind when Ziggy finished his treat. I separate them, and notice that Noelle is not hurt but Ziggy has a small cut on his face. Its not deep, but it looks awful. I worry how it will look to potential adopters. I worry what people will think if I post it on my blog but decide to do it anyway, because fights happen with dogs and rawhides when foster moms are too busy eating potato chips to see the warning signs. Let this be a lesson to us all.

10:00 PM – Shadow begins barking again. We’ve been outside several times – we’ve been for a walk – she has water and a comfortable dog bed in her crate – I think she’s just lonely and scared in her new surroundings. Dave asks me to PLEASE make her be quiet. The barking goes on for almost an hour, and I want to cry. Finally she quiets down.

11:00 PM – I am ready to go to sleep, but Remi is on the bed which doesn’t leave much room. I lay on the edge of the mattress and try not to fall off. Noelle is also on the bed, but she decides this would be a great time to chase the four cats who have followed me into the bedroom. Chaos ensues. I capture three of the cats and send them out of the room. I close the bedroom doors and get back on my sliver of mattress.

 

11:10 PM – Scribbles the foster cat leaves her hiding spot in the bedroom and Noelle spots her. More chaos. I somehow get Scribbles out of the bedroom without letting any other cats back in, and without any serious injuries. I go back to bed.

11:25 PM - My cat Merlin who knows how to open the door comes back into the bedroom, followed by two other cats. Rudy the foster cat jumps up on the bed with me, which is fine until he climbs over me and starts climbing on Dave. Dave does not like cats. He really does not like being woken up for the eightieth time that night by a cat climbing on him. I get out of bed again and put all the cats except Merlin out of the bedroom. I finally fall asleep.

1:00 AM – A dog begins barking. Dave wakes me up and asks me to do something about it. I get up to see if it is Shadow needing to go out, and find out it is actually Ziggy needing to go out. I sigh. Then I let him outside. Then I let him back in and put him back in his crate. I go back to bed and find out my sliver of mattress has disappeared. I cry.

The End

Okay so yesterday was mostly filled with the “down” emotions. But this morning I got a call from someone wanting to adopt Shadow. I’m meeting them tonight after work. I have high hopes that today will be filled with all “up” emotions.