Want to Save a Life?

As many of you know, I'm a dog foster.  Several years ago I reached out to Dogs XL Rescue who I had adopted Alby from, to see what it would take to volunteer as a foster.  All rescues are desperate for volunteers and so they called me back almost immediately.  Right now Dogs XL Rescue is looking for people to become fosters.  This is your chance to save a life by becoming a foster.  Without fosters, rescues can't pull dogs from shelters because they have no where to go.

The screening process for new fosters is very simple, a phone call with a foster coordinator to talk about your lifestyle, where you live, and how many pets already live in your home kicks everything off.  A call by the rescue to your vet to ensure all your resident pets are up to date on vaccinations and monthly preventatives (heartworm and flea/tick) followed by a home visit and you're up and running as a dog foster.

Dogs XL Rescue works incredibly hard to ensure that all of its dogs not only are adopted by the right family, but that they're matched up well with their foster before they get adopted.  For example, if you have a cat, your foster dog will be cat friendly.  Do you have small children?  Your foster dog will be appropriate for small children.  I live in a tiny townhouse without a fenced yard so all my fosters need to get along well not only with Alby, my only resident pet, but they also need to do well on daily walks.  My townhouse also backs to a playground that is very active and kids ranging from toddler to teen race by my deck on their way to the swings and jungle gym.  Therefore, my foster needs to be pretty kid friendly even though there are no kids in my house.

Our fosters live in all kinds of homes - apartments, townhouses, small and large single family homes, farms, on the water, in the city and in the suburbs.  Some of our fosters have fenced yards and some don't. Some of our fosters don't have their own dog, they just love fostering.  And some of our fosters have several dogs and cats and human babies.  Some of our fosters work full time and some are retired.  Some work from home and some head off to the office each day.  In other words, there are very few restrictions to becoming a foster.

My number one rule for fostering has always been that it has to be okay with Alby.  We had one dog that kept picking at Alby until he couldn't take it anymore.  I called the rescue and we made arrangements for that guy to go somewhere else.  The rescue can't always turn on a dime, but they are incredibly responsive and work hard to place dogs where they will do well.

The optimal situation for all of our dogs is that they be in a foster home until they are adopted.  Unfortunately though because we're always short on fosters that sometimes means that we have to put dogs in to boarding.  Our boarding partners are wonderful, Tecla's K-9 Academy and Dogtopia, and our dogs can be very happy there for short periods of time.  Some dogs require a dog savvy owner though and it takes a little longer to find just the right person to adopt them and if there's no foster, they can end up in boarding for a longer time.  While it's still better than a shelter situation, it's not great.  Like I said, a foster home and eventually a permanent home are best.

We're a rescue so while we get awesome dogs, some of them do have special needs.  Some dogs just aren't appropriate for a home with small children, or they can't be with cats or in rare cases they need to be an only dog.  Remember, we don't like all people and some dogs don't like other dogs.  We work incredibly hard to match the right dog with the right home.  We're looking to make a lifetime commitment for that dog so that when they're adopted they're going to the home they'll be in for the rest of their lives.

Dogs XL Rescue pays for all food, preventatives and veterinary care while the dogs are being fostered.  They supply the foster with a crate as well.  There are also dog trainers who volunteer with the rescue to answer any questions around behavior and provide extra support to fosters who are new to rescue.  In addition, when you're heading out on vacation, the rescue will arrange for a temp foster while you're out of town if your foster dog hasn't been adopted yet.

On average Dogs XL dogs are adopted within 2 weeks of arriving at the rescue.  Some, like our puppies, are adopted almost as soon as we greet them for the first time, and some of our older dogs can be with the rescue a little longer.

Nothing is more rewarding than watching your foster dog head off with their new family.  Yes, you love them and yes, you'll miss them, but knowing that they're one of the luckiest dogs on earth is a very happy feeling.  So many dogs never make it out of the shelter.  Dogs who get picked up by a rescue have hit the jackpot.  The likelihood of them living an awesome life for the rest of their days is now very high.

If you've ever thought you'd get too attached and just couldn't give the dog up, I would say that at the end of the day the rewards of having saved a life and given so much joy not just to the dog, but to the family that adopted that dog as well, make it a lot easier to say good bye.  Do some of our dogs end up getting adopted by their fosters? Yes.  Have I considered adopting some of my fosters?  Absolutely.  Then I get an email from the adopters talking about how much they love their new dog, and how well the dog is fitting in to their family and that just makes me over the moon happy.  Then I get an email from the rescue asking me if I'm ready to take on a new foster and I start looking forward to helping save the next life.

If you are a dog lover and have ever thought you wanted to make a difference, I would encourage you to click on the links I've embedded throughout this post for Dogs XL Rescue and consider volunteering as a Dog Foster.  We'd love to have you and we and the dogs really need you in our life.