My family had been considering adding a second dog to the mix for years. And by "considering" I mean the other four people I'm related to have been employing all strategies for wearing me down. This summer we agreed on something that will make us all happy...or drive us to the brink of insanity: fostering puppies for a local dog rescue called Small Miracles. We currently have 4 lab mix puppies living in our sunroom. The rescue was expecting them to be 8-weeks old, but when they arrived they were only 4-weeks. Since all their dogs need to be spayed/neutered before being adoptable and that can't happen til a dog is 8-weeks, they will need foster care til then. This blog post will document our first journey into fostering.
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Just got home. They're wearing name tags so we can tell them apart. By the time they wake up we know who is who.
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Ok -- I wrote that intro above one week ago (plus a follow up entry or two). When I went to write more I realized anything remarkable had to do with poop: consistency, worm presence, piles and color. Each entry was pretty much the same -- and what's remarkable about that? Not much. Just like with human newborns, the changes are slow and the days are kind of monotonous (GroundDOG Day??). The puppies couldn't be any cuter (did you just hear Jerry Seinfeld's voice or was that just me?) or more fun, but journaling about them really wasn't necessary. It's just one of those things worth experiencing which is particularly nice and possibly unusual in a time where every moment is documented on social media. Of course this all seems oddly hypocritical since I'm writing a blog about how I'm not going to document our fostering experience.
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Brooklyn
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Ringo
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Lexie
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Savannah
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We've got 5 days left in our two-week stint. These puppies are a delight and only challenging in their sheer quantity. Seeing how my kids and husband have really stepped up shows me how we can all pull together and work towards a common goal. Just like everyone, our lives are busy and we're always tag-teaming to some carpool, practice, appointment or event. Having these dogs here has forced us to be home more and be in the same room a lot. Plus it doesn't hurt that it's really easy to love something so adorable. It's also shown me -- a fastidious housekeeper -- can and must "let go" a little. Of course the hand washing and the laundry have been constant and I do freak out a little when I see a pile of poo has projectiled through the confines of their pen and landed on my porcelain tile. I invested in baby wipes, potty pads, paper towels and pilfered every free newspaper stocked in local CVS and WalMart vestibules. But my kids are happy and these puppies hit the proverbial lottery.
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Feeding time is oh-so-cute!
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My mission now is two-fold:
1) find someone to foster them for the remaining two weeks until they're eligible for adoption
2) help find them "forever" homes
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Our dog Scout has been so tolerant of the puppies. Mostly she's disinterested, but this day she let them snuggle in for a few seconds.
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When we were driving home from Small Miracles that first day -- puppies on laps -- I warned my kids not to get too attached, sensing that that would be the hardest part of this whole experience. I know giving them up on Monday will be difficult for them, but what I didn't count on is how attached I would become. Fostering has been a rewarding undertaking and a fabulous opportunity to help out a dog (or four) in need, plus teach volunteerism and responsibility along the way.
They will be listed on Petfinder.com in about another week so please keep your eyes and paws out for anyone you think might be worthy of my litter -- Savannah, Lexie, Ringo and Brooklyn.
