May 9, 2012

Why I foster

A charity for pets and vets, what's not to love?
Last month, one of my favorite organizations, Pets for Patriots, had an article detailing what pet fostering is. My initial thought was how silly was I that I never covered that in my blog. Reading over their post, I don't think I could have done any better explaining what fostering actually entails, why it is so important, and how you can get involved.

After reading, I started to examine my motives behind fostering. Of course, we want to do our part to help with the dog overpopulation problem. There is a great sense of satisfaction knowing that we are helping to reduce euthanasia, helping rehabilitate and train pets to make them good family dogs, and putting those pets with families waiting to love them for the rest of their lives. I love that fostering gets me involved in the community and puts me in contact with a great many people fighting the same good fight all across the world. By fostering, and broadcasting all about it, I have "converted" people who had previously purchased their pets.

But really, if I looked at it honestly, one of the biggest reasons I foster is because I don't want a second dog. Sounds funny, but it's true. Relay is a perfect pet for us. I don't see how I could be happier with any other dog in the world, but also I don't want to try. I found my happy ending, and by only having one dog, I have an open spot(s) in my home that allows us to temporarily "rent" him a playmate or two. Not only can I help save more pets this way, I still get to have a little freedom.

So, why should you foster? If you are interested in doing a little good one cute face at a time, if you are interested in adoption but want to do a "test run", if (like in my case) you want a playmate for your pet but don't want to commit to another dog... or really for any reason in the world. It doesn't matter why, but if you do foster you'll have one wagging tail thanking you each day and eventually one family that will be grateful for years to come.

2 comments:

I also think fostering gives the dog a much better chance of transitioning well to a new home :) I wish we could foster more - but our cats seriously object!!

Great post. I've often considered fostering, and I would really like to do it at some point!

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