[Konnie Hein]

Last fall I rescued a female GSD from a really bad situation. The GSD, named Sascha, was tied to a wire crate in her owner's backyard near the Mianus River in Greenwich. She was skin and bones and had no real shelter from the elements. At one point, employees at a nearby deli had to fish her out of the river because she had dragged the crate into the river, got tangled up and almost drowned. I convinced the owner to sign the dog over to me and immediately found a home for her with relatives. Despite her apparent lack of socialization, she is a super-sweet girl who loves everybody.

Well, now it turns out that the relatives are having a baby and no longer wish to keep the dog. I am so pissed!!!! Before I let them have the dog, they completely convinced me that they would keep her forever regardless of their future plans for a family.

I know dogs are discarded like old news for this reason a million times a day, but I just get so burned every time I hear about it (and this time it hits close to home too). I can't force them to keep the dog, so I will be asking for her back so I can attempt to find a more suitable home for her.

Ugggggghhhhh!!!

 

[Connie Sutherland]

I'm taking a foster dog next week. On his shelter turn-in form, in the line for why the dog is being surrendered to a shelter, his owners of seven years wrote "Don't want no more."

 

[Konnie Hein]

I have a huge amount of respect for people who rescue and/or foster dogs on a regular basis. It must take an insane amount of patience to do such work.

 

[Al Curbow]

Jeeez Konnie, you have plenty of room for another dog :lol: :lol:

 

[Konnie Hein]

"Room" for another dog is not an issue. Time to spend with the dog is the real kicker. But you know that already, Al.

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

So when someone says "Foster" (Connie, you specifically) -- does that mean "keep until rehomed"? I think I'd get attached to the dogs I "foster" and end up with 20 dogs.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

So when someone says "Foster" (Connie, you specifically) -- does that mean "keep until rehomed"? I think I'd get attached to the dogs I "foster" and end up with 20 dogs.

That's what it means, but .... yeah, I would need a lot more strength of character before I could ever do it as a regular thing. I have friends and we have club members who do it all the time, including drop-everything-and-go stuff. I admire them tremendously.

 

[Sarah Hall]

I am a foster for abandoned newborn puppies for both Seminole and Orange county SPCAs/Animal Control. I like it because puppies go so fast, and most are out by the time they're 10weeks old, so I just am the milk momma, then they go out to their adopted homes. I remember one time I had a litter of 9 pups that were first labled "Shepherd/lab mixes"... well they ended up being purebred mals (or damn close enough)... I had one chew a hole through an interior door at 8wks old because he wanted to be by momma (me).

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

How do they get homed? The shelter takes care of that? Do people come by your house to see them or do you bring them to the shelter for viewing?

 

[Sarah Hall]

Normally with the pups I'll foster, we will get pics of them and put them up at the shelter and the web site. The shelter does all of the adoption approvals, etc. I really hate it, and I really kind of got out of it since I couldn't home them myself. Now I just drop my card off at local vets and say I'll take any orphaned/unwanted babies off their hands so I can evaluate and home the pups myself.
I always keep a stock of puppy AND kitten milk, bottles, and an incubator at my house just in case. Also, since I've been a vet tech, I keep bags of fluids, IV caths/needles, and other things (including pitocin for the breeder) with me most of the time. Just this past week I was trying to nurse my 18-year-old cat back to health and was giving him fluids every 4 hrs (unfortunately I had to put him to sleep on Wed., but at least I did all I could). It's good to have vet tech training, or know someone that does that you can contact 24/7, when you deal with very young pups.

 

[Maren Bell Jones]

So when someone says "Foster" (Connie, you specifically) -- does that mean "keep until rehomed"? I think I'd get attached to the dogs I "foster" and end up with 20 dogs.

This is definitely true, Mike. You kind of have to keep it in perspective as some dogs are really really tempting to keep while others are like "yes! I don't have to deal with that one any more!" I love them all, but what keeps me doing it is seeing the new owners in a pet store or vet office or in the park with their dog and I'll come up and ask about the dog. It's very rewarding to see the dog with a new happy home as most of my fosters were strays or abuse/neglect cases. I do kind agree with Sarah though, because I've thought about doing my own small scale (like 1 to 2 dogs at a time max) rescue for large breeds, especially working and herding dogs. I currently foster with the Central Missouri Humane Society and I might start up with Serendipity GSD rescue as well, but I get rather irked when I give very very detailed behavioral profiles of the dogs and half of the stuff (if it is not so great, like not liking kids or other pets, etc) doesn't get up their profile on Petfinder. Only when the dog gets returned because it chased the cats in the house or whatever do they usually be more truthful. Ah well, starting up your own rescue, vet bills especially, is really expensive.

 

[Sarah Hall]

Yeah, in my ideal world I would own 100+ acres, and rescue herding-type dogs and have different fields fenced for different types of training with all the best equipment available. Of course, in that world I'd also never have to pay vet, food, or any other type of bill, or I'd be so ridiculously rich it wouldn't make a ripple in my bank account.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

How do they get homed? The shelter takes care of that? Do people come by your house to see them or do you bring them to the shelter for viewing?

The shelter here posts web pics and takes apps and then narrows down to one (with reserves), then the foster takes the dog in and the dog meets the prospective adopter. So there is no tracking through the foster's house.

My small dog's club functions as an unofficial arm of the local chapter of the SPCA; members take in dogs from even other areas where the shelter might be full, then this city lists them, does the speuter and eval, etc., but the dog is housed at a home of one of our club members. This also really ups the info about getting along with kids and other animals, because they are in a real home.

Of course, the SPCA and the city's animal services have animal housing; it's just limited, especially for special-needs animals who need a lot of attantion for a while.

 

[Kristen Cabe]

When I fostered, the rescue group I fostered for provided all the food/crates/toys/meds/etc. for the foster dog, as well as paying for any emergency vet visits or whatever if something happened. All I did was basically teach the dogs some basic ob and housebroke them, and took them out in public as much as possible to get them some exposure (they wore a bandanna that said "Adopt me!" or something to that effect), and also to socialize them. They were also posted on Petfinder. If someone was interested in the dog, a person from the rescue group would come and get the dog and take it to that person's house, and then bring the dog back afterwards. If the people passed the home "evaluation" and wanted to adopt the dog, then they had to fill out paperwork and everything before the dog left my house for good. I fostered older and/or larger dogs since most foster homes only want puppies or small dogs.