Brittani is one of our great fosters and we just love her story!

“My boyfriend and I recently took the next step in our relationship and finally got a small apartment together. However, this apartment was smaller than the place he lived in previously and it was not surrounded by dogs anymore. Our black lab, Maple, didn’t like the change very much because she did not have a large field across the street to run around in during the day with four or five other dogs to keep her company. So to keep her from getting cabin fever we started taking her more and more to the downtown dog park so she could get some social interaction, but we saw that it just wasn’t what she was used to previously. We had spoken before about getting another puppy but our schedules just didn’t allow us to have time for another full time dog. A fellow graduate student of mine had mentioned to me that before he adopted his puppy, Lily, he fostered to see if he had time to take care of one. I spoke with my boyfriend about this option and we thought that fostering would be great way for us to help animals and allow Maple to have a buddy in the apartment every now and then.

Our very first foster was a mother dog and five newborn puppies. The puppies were days old and the mother was highly timid and obviously abused by her previous owners, suffering from severe malnutrition and deep trust issues. We were shocked and worried about this being our first foster, but were determined to get her and the pups to better health. We named her Daisy because she was so fragile and dainty. We had our share of scares during this first week. She was so scared of us that if we walked into the room and startled her she would pee herself and go into panic mode. We also live next to a train track and as we were walking her the train blew its whistle and she was so scared that she slipped out of her collar and ran away. I was so worried that we had lost her forever, but we eventually caught her. I was starting to wonder if she would ever learn to trust humans again. I will never forget the day that I was watching television and I saw her walk into the living room to see what I was doing, something she had never done before. I was so happy! She came up to me, sniffed around, and then went back to the puppies. As the days went on she began to trust us more and more and eventually would even sit on the couch with us! Maple, our black lab, also enjoyed playing with Daisy (once she warmed up enough to actually start playing) and the puppies (once they were of age for playing, that is). When it came closer to returning them we knew that the puppies would be adopted immediately, but it was Daisy we were worried about. She was much healthier and trusting than when we initially got her, but she still had a long way to go. I cried very hard on the car ride to bring her back to Young Williams, even more so than I did when I brought the puppies back. Although she was still skittish sometimes, I knew that she was ready for adoption and would find a loving home! She just needed a family to start her journey.

The original plan for fostering was to just appease our want for another dog and to give Maple a playing buddy, but since fostering Daisy and her puppies it has become so much more than that. As hard as it on us, every time we return a dog from fostering we are so overcome with happiness to know that we have bettered that animal’s life and have allowed them to have a second chance for a bright future. No dog should spend a large amount of time in a shelter, and should always have to opportunity to be loved and know what it feels like to have a home. And it is because of these reasons that we still foster. We have lost countless books, flip flops, remotes, and chargers from all of our fosters, however all that will never outweigh the love and happiness we see and receive from each of our animals. As long as we have a house, we will always have a foster <3″

 

Fosters: Daisy Petals and her 4 pups, Benny, Shadow, Bastian, Atreyu, Ivory Empress, and Falcor

Learn more about becoming a foster parent by visiting our website here!