Fostering animals from the animal shelter can be quite intimidating for some people. After all, for the most part, the animals at the shelter are adult animals with a questionable past. You have no idea where they came from, what their story is, why they were running loose or why their owner surrendered them. The intake workers at the shelter do their best to find out why the animal is being brought in, but for the most part, people lie. They will say anything they have to to keep from getting in trouble for the condition of the animal they are surrendering, even telling them they found it.
My experience with fostering animals began in March of this 2011. I found a cat at a local park that was in dire need of medical care. It appeared that she had tried to deliver a litter of kittens and one was lodged breech in the birth canal. We removed the kitten with ease ourselves since it was an emergent situation. We then looked for any kittens that could have been born previously. We did not find any and it was late evening, there were no vets open at that hour so we took her home with us. We did not really have the money to get the cat treated, but we tried our best to locate an emergency facility that would take a stray cat.
Since we could not find one, we kept the cat with us overnight. After all, cats give birth at people’s homes all the time. When we woke up the next morning, we found that she had tried to deliver another kitten that had also become lodged. He was breech as well. However, this kitten appeared to be stuck with no yield. I did not know what else to do besides call the local animal shelter. They told me to rush her there and they would get her the proper medical treatment.
After I dropped her off at the animal shelter, I found that she had grown on me in that very short amount of time. I was curious as to how she was doing after being treated by the vet. The animal shelter told me that she had to have a complete radical hysterectomy and that there were two other kittens that were barely holding on to life. They called me about an hour later and told me that the kittens had died, but they were looking for a foster home for the cat while she recovered. This is understandable, especially since a shelter is not a sanitary place for a cat that has been through so much surgery and already was at risk for infection. I missed her, so I gladly jumped on the offer to foster her.
I had no idea how to care for a cat. A human, yes. A cat, no. So I researched how to care for her before she was released from the vet’s office. I ended up fostering her for 2 weeks through the animal shelter. When that time was up, I adopted her. I could not see living without her after all that she had been through and all the time that we had spent together.
A few months later, I lost my dog to Hartz flea soap side effects. I was not aware that it was deadly and not recommended. I was heart broken and wanted a big furry friend to ease my pain. I went to the animal shelter where I found an old dog that was about 14 years old. He had health issues and it nagged at me that I wanted to fix him. After spending two months with him, giving him his medication, loving him, walking him, and him becoming the center of my world, I had to have him put down. This sounds as though it is unfortunate but it isn’t. I was able to give him the home, the love and the human contact that he needed before he passed away.
After this ordeal, I was inspired. There were so many older dogs at the shelter that needed love and attention, even though they were on the verge of being put down. I began fostering them to give them what they needed to make their life complete.
Currently, I have a 12 year old paralyzed poodle who has emphysema and cannot do much for himself. I have his “life mate” who has a leaky heart valve and her age is unknown due to poor care of her teeth by her previous owner. I have a 12- to 13-year-old lab that is overweight and has cushing’s disease, a 15 + year old mixed breed dog that has bone cancer and is senile.
I also recently picked up a very young dog that has special needs that are not a special as the shelter thought they were. He was marked as a vicious animal and was going to be euthanized as soon as they could get into a cage with him. He is a 1 year old terrier/Chihuahua mix that was said to be the most vicious animal that the animal shelter had ever come into contact with. He was actually housed in the back kennel with the German Sheppard and pit bulls because he was so mean. It turns out that he was scared out of his mind. Within a few hours of us having him home, he was out of the cage and running around like he had always been there. He has no vicious behavior and the only aggression I have seen comes with being part chihuahua and not wanting to be picked up.
Recommended Reading
What to Expect When Fostering a Dog for the Shelter
NILIF “Nothing in Life is Free” Training for Dogs
How to Tell What Your Dog is Thinking
Is Your Dog Vomiting? – How to Tell a Visit to the Vet is Necessary