Meme day 14: Dog whispering
Dec. 16th, 2013 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwyndine asked: what was your reason for starting dog rescue/fostering work, and which of those you've fostered is your favourite?It really came about totally by accident. I had decided, after being happily dogless for most of my life, to get a dog, since I was working from home and around pretty much 24/7. I was feeling very lonely, and my dad had bred and trained Brittany spaniels when I was a kid, so I was very familiar with dogs -- but that familiarity had made me not want one because they are so much more high-maintenance than cats, and they smell bad quite often, and I freakin' hate dog poop. I had way too many memories of cleaning out the kennels when I was a child.
But you know, there's a lot to be said for an animal that you can take with you when you're running around in the car, and who greets you every morning as if it's the best day ever because you got up, and when you come home it's the best day ever again, just because you came home.
So I put in an application, but the fosters decided to keep the dog, and the rescue group lady said she had another dog similar to that one I might like to meet, and she could bring her over. I didn't understand that she planned to leave the dog with me! It was a foster to adopt scenario, and I could tell right away that she was not the right kind of dog for me. But I had her about a month, and there were definitely some trials and tribulations. Still, I liked her, and the cats eventually got over themselves (though they were very, very uptight for most of that time), and some time went by while I kept looking for another dog. On the rescue group's Facebook page one day they had a notice of need for an immediate foster for a darling little dog named Brutus, who was also with me about a month. I guess at that point I thought, well, I could keep doing this until I find my perfect dog.
My sister had been involved in animal rescue, and even though this isn't the same (she went into emergency situations and removed animals from harm, often big ones, like the horses and llamas she took out of the hills during the big San Diego fires in the early aughts), I felt like I was carrying on something for her, and that meant a lot to me. I'm going to be doing more work with the group coming up in the following year, I hope. It's not always easy, because I have cats, and people always tell me they could never do it because they either have psycho cats, or a crowded house, or they wouldn't be able to give the dogs or cats or buns away, or whatever. But you know what? I have psycho cats (witness the whole biting thing that has cost me thousands of dollars), I have a tiny house, and sometimes I cry when the dogs go away. But I also know that I'm giving them to their new forever homes, and I can't tell you what a great feeling that is.
Most of the animals we see have issues. And being in shelters stresses them out, so they come to us troubled and skittish. The best feeling in the world is when your dog or cat blossoms in your care, and they go off to their new family and you made a difference. So that's why I keep doing it.
I always say that I'll do it until my perfect dog comes along. But she already did, to be honest. Somehow I never posted a pic of Tilda, my pug, here, but she was just such a great dog, and I would have kept her except that my dad had become seriously ill, and I just couldn't see being down at the nursing home all the time and neglecting her, there was too much pressure. So she got adopted, and then my dad died, but it was too late. I did have her here when my dad died, though -- her new family was on holiday break and so she was boarding with me, in fact I picked her up the day he died. I was so glad she was here with me. I don't know if I could have handled it without her.
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