Just wondered how many on board have fostered a dog and especially many dogs?How many have you been unable to give up-if any?I fostered a 3 legged female greyhound a number of years ago -really loved her but she was such a b--- to my owned dog(would bite him if he was asleep in a spot she thought she wanted.She found a forever home but just wondered if it was a better fit would I have trouble giving her up-and wondering how many successfully foster and give up dogs?
Well we only tried fostering once and she is here to stay.
I simply could not bear giving her up; such a GREAT dog and so trusting. I regret not being able to help others, and I am sure she would have found a good home very soon... But just couldn't let go. I kind of thought: she is such a wonderful and easy and cool dog, someone would be sooo lucky to have her... Oh wait! Why not be that someone?
After almost 12 years and 100+ furry house-guests, I'd have wall-to-wall GSD carpet if I had kept all my fosters. Heck, it would still be a good sized area rug if I just kept the ones that were a good fit.
Both of our current resident dogs are "foster failures". Roxy stayed after three failed adoption placements. She was a wild child, but made me laugh every day. I think my SO and his son said yes to fostering Ward intending to keep him all along.
Over the years there have been maybe 10 that I still miss and think of often. There were a few that I loved and could have easily let stay, but this actually wasn't the best home for them.
I haven't fostered 100's, but I've fostered a good amount in the past five years. When I was actively fostering, I just kept it in the back of my mind, that once my current foster found their forever home, it allowed me to help save another one. It worked, still wasn't easy to see many of them go to their new home, but it helped.
I've fostered probably a dozen. I signed up to foster with the understanding that I was looking to adopt a young sable male. I adopted Cash within a week of starting to foster him, but I was addicted to fostering so I kept on.
Over the course of the last 17 years I've been doing rescue I've fostered over 100 (dogs and cats) - I think I figured it up once and it was like 170 or something. I love them all and there have been a few that I still think of longingly but as others have said, either they weren't a good fit here (didn't get along with a resident dog etc) or I didn't have the time or set up to be their best possible home. I look at like my job is to find them their perfect home. If that's not here, I'm not doing them any favors by keeping them even if it would have made me happy and I take a space from the next dog who needs me. We had a Pom last fall that I just adored. He went everywhere with me and I called him my "errand buddy" but he was very nervous about big dogs (well, other dogs in general) so even though he was super-attached to me, I didn't feel like keeping him was fair since other dogs are a big part of my life. he is now the spoiled only child of a young couple and seems to be doing well. I still miss his dance of joy though.
I have found that even when I'm strongly tempted, and even when our home is a good fit, that when the right adopter comes along I can let them go. Doing it enough times you can remind yourself of the last one you wanted to keep and the one before that and you remember that as much as it hurt at first, the pain dulled and then you were just happy they were happy.
One thing that's always hard is when they're super super bonded to you and you practically have to pry them off you to give them to the new owners. But it helps when you do this a lot and you get to see your former fosters later and see how attached they are to their new owners - and how sometimes, they only vaguely remember you. That's bittersweet, but ultimately a good thing, I think.
I just saw this was a poll question - in answer to the question: to date I have never kept a foster dog. I did, until recently have a foster failure cat (died this spring at age 16) who had so many health problems that I never ever bothered trying to place her when I got her as a kitten, even though she was not an animal I planned to keep when I brought her home.
All 4 of my current personal dogs are from shelters (two by way of other rescue groups) but they were all adopted as permanent residents from the get go.
I kept my first female foster, Judy. She is a senior and spent probably all of her life outside and was most likely used for breeding. When she came in my home I promised her that she would never spend another night outside in her life and that she would always have a dry warm place to lay her head. I figured the only way I could make sure to keep that promise was to adopt her myself. Plus she is the complete opposite of Liesel and they get along. I joke that they are yin and yang and you can't have one without the other.
It is going to kill me to give up my current foster, because he has become very bonded to me and I to him, but I know that I can not help another dog if I don't first find him a forever home.
I have only had one foster. I took him in out of necessity, he was a stray with nowhere else to go. At the time I was going broke and he had a level 5.9 heart murmur (on a scale of 1-6, 6 being the worst). I knew I couldn't afford the vet care he would need. It still hurts to think of him, I wanted so badly to keep him.
Since then, I haven't been in a situation where I could foster (renting, and then moving back in with my folks) but I don't know if I could after what I went through with the first one.
I started fostering last year, and we have kept one of our foster pups, because he was partly blind, and had hematomas in both ears. Our local AC (who I was fostering for) said because he was a "special needs" case and they are much harder to place, they will more than likely put him to sleep. I told them if it comes down to them killing him or me keeping him, I would take him as he was already integrated into our pack. I have had him since he was a week old and my GSD started lactating three days after the 6 pups came home.
Because my last batch of pups (in June) had parvo, I am turning away pups for a while and fostering a three-legged cat and 3 kittens. We might keep the three-legged cat because I have always wanted one.... but we are giving him 2 months to be adopted first.
We have fostered several dogs over the past 2 years and also served as hospice homes for 2 senior GSD's. We can only own 3 dogs of our own because of city ordinance. I always figure that we can save another if we send the current foster on to a forever home. We have had really wonderful fosters, too! So, it has been very hard! We are OK with it, though.
I have fostered and kept, fostered and adopted out.
Fostered and kept are dogs who might not make it anywhere else. I wait for someone who is not looking for a pet dog (ready out of the box or even ready eventually to be a trusted companion), continually assess the dog and generally there is a moment where I say...whoa...this dog is not going to leave. Because of the nature of my pack, these dogs are integrated-birds of a feather-so no worries about rotations!
SO now I don't foster, because the dogs I like the most are the ones with the issues, and that means---> they stay.
I would not keep an adoptable, normal dog, and those are the ones I adopted out happily.
Thanks you all for sharing.I presently have a probably unadoptable dog that I chose to adopt knowing possible problems.He is a best dog/bad dog kinda loving dog that shares my life.Hope he and I live out our lives together but have always felt that because of my age if something happens to Jake my best choice would be to foster dogs.I CAN NOT imagine living without a dog in my life.
I've fostered several and with each one I knew they were never truly mine. You'll know when the right one comes along that is the perfect fit for your family.
I've fostered only once. I would've liked to have kept him, but Fritz was a GSD/wolf cross and you are very limited in where you can have such an animal. He was placed with me by the local police after a drug bust. He couldn't go to a shelter and nobody wanted to put him down. He was just a 6 month old pup at the time. They knew me well for the GSDs my family had had for decades. I kept him for a year and then placed him with a group that is devoted to such dogs so that he could be assured of a safe forever home. I felt guilty for a long time and still do occasionally. I'd have kept him if it weren't for the limitations in owning him. On the plus side he lived a long and happy life with others of his kind. I got letters with a picture of him now and then to see how he was doing.
Someday years from now when Trip is older we may foster again. DW has fostered several times and always placed the dogs. She kept only two during that time.
I've had 19 dogs through my house over the last year and a half of fostering. I didn't own a dog and eventually will adopt one of my own but not until i find the right fit. Out of all the dogs in my home I can honestly say I would have liked to keep 2 but one needed a yard and one went to the big playground in the sky.
Eventually I will adopt my own gsd (or more likely one adopts me) but right now its best for them and me that I stay just a foster.
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