Fostering Thots

This is the first time in our years of fostering that we have a permanent foster. Granted, some were here so long they felt like they might be permanent. Kobe became permanent. He was with us for a year before we adopted him.

Lily has been in her foster home for 15 years now. Nah, just kidding. But she's been there a long time, well over Kobe's year with us. We have such great hopes for our foster dogs. We love them like they are our own. We cheer for their successes. We cry when they go to their forever home. It is a complicated thing this fostering.

It's an agreement to love wholeheartedly. To do training and housebreaking, to learn their issues and help them learn to be loving companions. Well, they do the loving and we enjoy their companionship.

It's very much like parenting, except you can put your foster in a crate. It's as heartbreaking and as rewarding as parenting. It's loving them enough to let them in, knowing you will let them go when the time is right. It's definitely not knowing what you are getting into, each and every time you foster. No two are the same.

It's puddles, and holes in blankets, heartworm, and an occasional parasite. It's figuring out which treats are liver treats OMG liver treats. It is sit, stay, down, no, good dog and hello buddy. It is the wonder of how humans can treat animals so horribly and dispose of them so cruelly. It is the magic of love and discipline.

It is saying yes, dear foster, I love you enough to let you go. It is the joy of hearing how your former foster dog is doing. It is the delight of seeing new pictures of them. Sometimes, it the bitter sweet experience of being the last one to love that sweet dog you foster. It was that way for us with Sidney. Someday it will be that way with Hank.

As much as I dislike the saying "it is what it is", it definitely applies to fostering. Fostering is what it is. And yes, it is an honor, and a privilege.