Yes! Our House IS Good Enough for a Dog!

But I'm still not a foster mommy!

The "Adopt a Golden" lady called back finally. There was no problem with our house, but it seems she needs to come do a second home visit because my husband and children weren't here when she came last week. Now, this annoys me because I TOLD her they wouldn't be and that I thought they had to be and she assured me that no, it didn't matter. She wanted that time because it was "convenient for her".

It turns out she was wrong - she DID have to see the husband and children before she could approve me and wanted to do another visit. I voiced my frustration about her choosing last Saturday when I KNEW the children and my husband needed to be here. She said well yeah, she knew I'd said that at the time, but she had a really busy schedule and was a supervisor and on call, etc etc etc.

I totally understand this - I really do - but I *also* am a busy person and it wasn't really very considerate to waste my time. [There was a ton of stuff higher on my list of ways to spend a Saturday than wasting an entire afternoon getting the house "inspection ready" and then having her here for an hour being kind of unfriendly].

At that point I told her I would like to withdraw my application.

I had already been second guessing volunteering for these people because when I read all the paperwork she left on Saturday, it left me feeling dubious them and how they treat their volunteers. The information for first time fosters was really hostile. "You rotten fosters! Don't even THINK about falling in love with one of our dogs. You will NOT be allowed to adopt one of our dogs. You will NOT be allowed any say in the matter. You have a conflict of interest and if you love one of our dogs it will be removed from your home immediately!" That isn't exactly what it said, but very similar.

It was just really odd to me - I understand the need for the rule that fosters can't adopt until they've kept at least 3 foster dogs, and I support that, but there is a nice, kind way to state things. You can be welcoming of new volunteers while still maintaining the rules. It was so odd and seemed so negative, it made me actually feel bad for volunteering, which I've never experienced before.

So, I just decided enough of this. I'm not going to do the foster thing any more. It really should NOT be THIS hard to volunteer your time to help!

Currently I am already volunteering with the German Shepherd Dog Rescue of GA and I'm enjoying that. I do the reference checks for them to help them decide whether a family will be a good fit for one of their dogs. It has been really a neat thing to be involved with, and German Shepherds are my first love when it comes to dogs [Shhhh...don't tell Sage!].

We plan to get a puppy this summer. Once Monkey5 is 6 months old, we will have the time to devote to really training the puppy and socializing it well. Our goal was to have two dogs - and I think our sweet Rescue Collie adult and a precious puppy will be a perfect set for our family.