Happy Holidays

Cliff and I have had conversations lately about adding additional volunteering and community work to our plate. This came about during our breakfast pre-shopping extravaganza last Monday. Over his crepes and my chilaquiles, he brought up that he would like to volunteer. I had to remind him that we DO volunteer- fostering dogs- did he forget? No, it has just become such a part of our lives that the effort blends right in with the day to day. The discussion ended with a renewed energy to expand our volunteer service, but this dialog got me thinking about starting the conversation with all of you about trying your hand at fostering yourselves. Most everyone I know is a dog lover and understands the statistics of pet overpopulation. They then try to help be a part of the solution through adoption, volunteering, and donations to humane services and rescues. Fostering, though, is such a vital step in the process.

Fostering provides an animal the opportunity to feel secure and safe so they can relax and show more of their true personality- giving potential adopters a clearer picture of who they truly are. Also, foster homes provide needed structure and positive reinforcement to improve their dog manners and become a better companion. If a dog has an illness or is overcoming an injury, foster homes provide the warm and calm environment to enable recovery.

That's only some of what fostering does for animals. I can't even think of the many ways in which fostering helps us. Patience, unconditional love, commitment - just to name a few. Most of all, we are rewarded repeatedly by our fosters by the look in their eyes of gratefulness, the small steps we make repairing their spirit, and the kisses on our hands (sometimes faces) in appreciation. But, there's truly no greater reward than knowing that we have been a part of the process of saving the life of an animal.

You can have this too. The only experience we had before getting started was the experience of raising our own animals (and those of you that know Kobe- I didn't do so great with him...so my experience wasn't all that awesome). We've picked up a lot of knowledge and many skills along the way, though. And we'd be happy to share it all with any of you who wish to take on my holiday challenge:

There are so many dogs in need of a foster home - Fred is just one. I met him at an adoption event a few weeks ago and he's very sweet. He's currently boarded at a facility, but would benefit greatly from having a foster home. Any chance any of you in the DFW metroplex want to try your hand at fostering? Fred would love you for it.