Animal shelters hope more people will consider fostering dogs

As reported here, the nationwide foreclosure crisis has resulted in more and more dogs abandoned outside, or surrendered at animal shelters where they face the very real risk of being killed for lack of cage space.  

But animal shelters say there's a simple thing each of us can do to help during this crisis, even if we don't have time to adopt a new pet: foster.  

Through no fault of their own, homelessness happens to dogs as well as people. Fostering a dog, animal advocates agree, is a simple way to act locally to help end the global problem of homelessness, by freeing up cage space at your community's animal shelter for one more dog in need.  

For those who may be reluctant to foster a dog, fearing that they will become too attached to give up the animal, rest assured that for every case of "foster failure," celebrity or otherwise, there are many more foster successes - i.e. adoptable dogs successfully moved out of temporary housing and into permanent homes.  

Over the years, this blogger has successfully fostered eight dogs (so far), including a Keeshond, a Norwegian Elkhound, a pit bull, a Treeing Walker Coonhound, an American Bulldog, and three all-American mutts. All of them moved on to permanent accommodations in other people's homes, where they're living happily ever after. Are they missed? Are they ever - especially Coosje the Keeshond. But the knowledge that they are all happily installed in forever homes is ample reward for rising to the serious challenge of loving and letting go.

Carole Raphaelle Davis, actress, blogger, and author of The Diary of Jinky, Dog of a Hollywood Wife, knows all about the joy of fostering dogs. Read her article on the subject here. 

Post a Comment