A-D-O-P-T-E-D!!

It’s the reason rescue organizations exist. To take homeless animals, care for them and love them, and then provide them with the one thing they need the most – a loving family of their very own. It’s the reason I foster. And today, it’s the reason I am celebrating, because several of my foster pets have been adopted recently. All four of them had one issue or another that made them difficult to find a home for. In some shelters, they never would have stood a chance. But today they’re all in loving homes, where I hope they will be able to spend the rest of their lives! Here are their stories:




Tank (left) and Mayzie



Mayzie – As an adult pit bull mix picked up as a stray, most places wouldn’t have given Mayzie a chance at life. Lucky for her she was found by someone who took her to a vet’s office instead of a shelter. And even more lucky, when the owners couldn’t be found, one of the employees reached out to everyone she knew to find Mayzie a place to go. The employee paid for Mayzie’s shots and spay, and then brought her to me. Mayzie is one of those dogs who loves everyone – human and animal. She makes friends wherever she goes, and she is always so happy. The daughter of one of the other foster volunteers fell in love with Mayzie, and adopted her last week. Now Mayzie (now named Mila) has a great family, and a step-brother named Tank who looks like he could be her real littermate. I was very confused when I first saw them together as to which one was Mayzie!



Shiloh in her new home



Shiloh – This Blue-tick Coonhound almost starved to death before she was rescued by my neighbors. Dogs like Shiloh – hunting dogs such as coonhounds and beagles – are often lost and end up in shelters all around the country. These dogs can go quite a long way from their home when they’re on a hunt or chasing a scent, and then not only can they not find their way back home, but their owners may not be searching for them in the right places because the dogs have gone so far from home. So shelters are full of dogs like Shiloh, and she may not have been lucky enough to make it out alive of most. Shiloh was one of the lucky ones and ended up in rescue. I was one of the people who fostered her during this time, and like her other foster mom, I just fell in love with her. She would often give very gentle hugs by standing up on her back legs and wrapping her front legs around my waist. She had long silky ears that were so much fun to play with. And her personality was extremely sweet, in spite of her lack of house manners! Shiloh had a lot of people interested in her, but she never found the right fit, until two weeks ago when a man came up to see her and decided to take her home as a foster with the plans to adopt her if everything went well. Last I heard, Shiloh is doing very well in her new foster home, and will hopefully be adopted in the next couple of weeks!

Charlie

Charlie – Also known as Charlie the Scaredy-Dog, Charlie has been waiting for a family of his own for his entire life. The first four years of his life were spent in a no-kill shelter, and while he was cared for by extremely devoted volunteers, he was just one of many homeless animals in the shelter. Then he came to me, and had to learn how to trust, and what it meant to live in a house, and go for car rides, and go out in public. And that was very traumatic for him. Even once he learned to trust me, he still was afraid of everyone else, and would huddle in the back of his crate at adoption events and bark at anyone who dared to pay him any attention. No one seemed inclined to adopt a scaredy-dog like Charlie, until Nathan and Catherine came along. This young couple met Charlie and immediately said “we want him”. Charlie is learning to trust them now, and I am hoping that within a few weeks, the adoption will be official and Charlie will get to live the rest of his life with a family who wants him.



Fawn

 Fawn – This four-year-old Italian Greyhound is another dog who spent the first four years of her life without a home. She was a puppy mill dog, kept only to produce puppies to sell, and never learned what it is like to be a part of a family. She came to us extremely frightened, and it took several months before she would come anywhere near me. Since she was a small purebred dog of a rather rare breed, Fawn got a lot of attention from potential adopters. But invariably by the time I told them that even though she had lived with me for months, she was still terrified of me and all other humans, they would realize she wasn’t what they were looking for. Until recently, when a lady contacted me and asked about Fawn, and wasn’t scared off by Fawn’s extreme shyness. She was knowledgable about Italian Greyhounds and couldn’t wait to meet her. Two days after going to her new home, I received an e-mail from the lady and expected to hear that “this isn’t working out”. Instead I heard “Fawn is fantastic!” And again I thought “this is why I foster”. The breeder who gives up Fawn and dogs like her will euthanize them if a rescue group doesn’t take them. Either these dogs aren’t producing babies anymore, or they get too old, or in Fawn’s case the breeder just decided to stop breeding Italian Greyhounds. If a rescue volunteer hadn’t stepped forward to take Fawn and the other breeder dogs, she would never have known life with someone who thinks she is fantastic.

That is why I foster. And that is why I love it.

Ziggy the adoptable dog!

P.S. Ziggy wants to remind you that his birthday is coming up in seven days. Since he will be turning three years old, he asked me to tell his friends to each send him three chewbones for his birthday, but instead I convinced him that I could ask his friends to donate three dollars to a shelter or rescue in their area next time they have the opportunity. He said he’d rather have the chewbones, but that would be a nice birthday gift too. So if you’d like to make a donation in honor of Ziggy’s birthday, please drop a few dollars into the donation jar of a rescue group or shelter near you next time you have the opportunity. Thank you – from Ziggy and all the other foster dogs and shelter dogs!