This is How People Become "The Crazy Dog Lady"

This is Jackson [from Homeless Pets] and Monkey2 and Monkey3. Isn't he cute?!


This is our dog, Sage [in front] and Sheldon, a foster Collie from St. Francis Rescue, where we got Sage.

Yesterday I ended up with TWO foster dogs, but today I only have one!

I signed up to foster with Homeless Pets and went in yesterday morning to pick up a dog to foster. We got a cute little black lab/spaniel/chow mix named "Jackson". He is 10 months old and a total spaz, but really playful and sweet.

But the funny thing was that I got a desperate email from the lady who runs the collie rescue where we got Sage asking if I could foster - I had just spoken to her last week about fostering and she had no dogs that needed fostering. Then she got FIVE collies over the weekend! Which is the nature of Rescue work.

So she wanted me to foster a collie that she's had for a week so she could take in two that are pretty sick and need intensive care to get them back to adoptable good health. So... I said yes and yesterday afternoon we went to pick Sheldon up.

We got him home and he seemed fine - seemed to like Sage and had OK house manners. He was sweet with the kids and with the adults. Then out of the blue he jumped all over the little lab mix we are fostering. I thought "Hmmmm.... must be male to male aggression" so I separated them. A few minutes later he *attacked* Sage - I mean like jumped her, threw her to the ground and was growling, snarling, and biting the heck out of her!

I put him in a crate. Later I was trying to let him out to go potty and the lab mix got away from me and ran up to him and he attacked the little lab mix - and those two were going at it because the lab mix was fighting back [unlike my meek little Sage] - it took me & Pete a full 2 minutes to get them to stop - I was afraid one of them was going to be dead before I could get them to stop! Everyone was OK - the lab mix was just really slobbery where he kept getting bit, but no skin was broken. [We've been calling him "scrappy" since then because he is completely fearless and has such spunk! He is 35 lbs -about half the size of the collie and he went toe to toe with him! LOL!]

So, I took the collie back this morning and now I just have the little lab. It was really weird, because collies are almost never aggressive. :(

Then, the German Shepherd Dog Rescue of GA lady emailed and wanted to do my home visit tonight. We plan to foster with them because we sincerely do want to foster a few shepherds before we adopt. So she came tonight and did the home check.

It turns out I really like her and we hit it off pretty well. She said she was "really impressed" - with the kids and how well behaved they were, with how great our house is, and with how well I was doing with Sage and the lab foster. So, I'm an "approved" foster for them. [WOOHOO!]

It may be a while before we get a foster dog with them though, because we are looking to foster only older, settled dogs who are of a known good temperament and good with kids and dogs. She said they get about 100 contacts every week about available shepherds though, so who knows how soon it may happen.

In the meantime, I really like fostering with "Homeless Pets". It is neat how they do it. You pick a dog up on Monday morning from the vet office and provide it with a safe place to stay for the week and some training if you can [we taught our little guy how to walk on a leash and sit today - he's very bright!].

Then on Friday you bring them back to the vet office. On Saturday and Sunday the dogs go to different PetSmart adoption sites and hopefully get adopted. If they don't, then you can call on Monday and if they still have that dog you can come get it and keep it for another week if you want - but there is no obligation. [so if you get the foster dog from hell, you don't have to keep it forever!].

I like that because it is a really easy, short term commitment and their dogs really do need the help. They usually come from shelters where they've been living for months and they aren't house trained, obedience trained, leash trained or anything. AND, if they don't have a foster volunteer, the dog lives in a cage at the vet's office and only gets out for 2 or 3 10 minute breaks a day! So it really is an opportunity to make a big difference in the dog's life - both in training it to help it be more adoptable and in just the day to day existence of not having to live in a cage.

So, that's our "Adventure in Fostering" for this week!