Sunday, March 10, 2013

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

Not to sound cliche, but where do I start?

It's been a couple months since I last posted.  Not much to post about in my "Foster Dog Diaries" blog when I'm not fostering a dog.

Well, we all knew how long that would last.  Do you sense the sarcasm?  I can't remember the last time that I only had four dogs in my house.  What's one more?  I did not intend on acquiring another foster dog until I got word that PAWS of Hertford County had a shy dog that needed to get into a foster home.  So... I got that spark in my heart and started getting excited about possibly having a new dog in the house.  Paige has settled in as a permanent family member... and our days are quite simple.  I felt like I could open up my home and my heart to another dog in need.  Especially a shy dog.  I sure do love my shy dogs...

So I went to the adoption event and stopped by Jackson's (my prospective foster dog's) crate to visit.  However, he wasn't cowered in the corner like my other "shy dogs".  He clearly had some anxiety... but Jackson was nothing like Audrey or Hallie, my nearly feral dog fosters.  I gladly hung out with the PAWS volunteers and noticed shortly a young boy visiting with Jackson.  The look in his eyes as he stood in front of the dog's crate was priceless.  As jealous as I was that this kid was probably going to be taking MY new foster dog, I couldn't help from being in awe over the fact that you could just tell that these two were meant to be together.  And that was that.  The family had their German Shepherd meet Jackson, then they filled out the adoption form.  Just after a week of being back at the shelter, Jackson was back in a home - surely forever this time.


At that point, I had prepared myself to go home with a dog.  I couldn't go home empty-handed now!  I'm always happy to take a dog from PAWS and free up some space there.  It's funny... because I actually ended up taking home the first dog I saw even before I walked into Petsmart.  Before I even walked through the doors, one of the volunteers was walking this old, washed up, sad-looking Hound.  Her name was Wynona... and she had a great story of her escape from the shelter to go with her!  Apparently she escaped from the shelter and was found running down the road, ironically, by a PAWS volunteer who was on her way to work.  I was actually looking at a younger Pittie before I decided on Wynona, but there was something about this girl that pulled at my heartstrings.  She actually reminded me of my old foster dog, Peaches.  Her mopey demeanor, her face, and so much more!  I had to have her.





Now she's got a new name and a new outlook on life!  I ended up naming her Posey... and she's been with me for a week and has been absolutely amazing!  She's extremely easy and is more like a couch ornament than a dog.  She's house-trained, crate-trained, good with dogs, good with cats, walks well on a leash, rides great in the car, wonderful with kids, and she's pretty much perfect.  Her only issue was that she'd possibly try to escape from a yard.  The first few days, I supervised her closely.  But, honestly, this dog wants to be outside, do her business, and come back in to sit on the couch.  I even left her out today with the other dogs... and when I got up to check on them, she was passed out on the deck enjoying some sunshine!  She went to an adoption event today, lasted about an hour, then slept the rest of the day.  She didn't even stand up when new dogs came into the building.  Yeah, she's perfect.  After today, I seriously can't picture her busting out of the shelter and running down the road!  Yeah, she gets playful for all of... 5 minutes... but that's about it!  She's great!  If all of my foster dogs could be like her, I could easily have five dogs in the house.