In today's blog post, veteran dog fosters Robin and Shannon share their foster mission statement and introduce their 33^rd foster dog, Mr. Baxter.

“He’s our 33^rd,” I say to the woman we meet at the park during our daily walk.

“I could never foster,” she says. “I would fail.”

I tell her that it helps that we have a mission statement and tell her what it is: we want to be a safe, healing and loving space for a dog on its journey to its forever home.

This mission helps keep us grounded, though admittedly there comes that difficult time with every foster when we say goodbye. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard, very hard. Even though we know a great person or family, home and life await. And somehow, the pain never lasts. It is most easily squashed by walking back into the shelter. There is a never ending stream of dogs who need our help.

We are serially monogamous, for the most part, though a few bonded pairs do slip in on occasion. Usually we take the ones that “have issues,” medical or emotional. We also like the small ones, the smaller the better. Five pounds  or less are my favorite, though I myself am a German Shepard fan. Fostering allows us to “try on” different dogs; and offers lots of opportunities to learn how to train around varying situations.

Right now, we have Mr. Baxter the beagle. He came to us one Saturday after a busy day at the shelter. He had been with Furkids for far too long and was being overlooked because he slept all day and did not pay much attention to the goings on around him. He does not “show well” as we say in rescue. One of the staff approached and asked if we would consider fostering him.

We had never had a beagle before, and he is a bit larger than we normally go for, but one look into his liquid brown eyes told us he was a dog in need of love, comfort and compassion. There was just something special about him. We have been together two months now and we are doing all we can to find him his new perfect forever home. I can go on and on about Baxter but suffice it to say he is a great dog in need of a great home. If you are interested or know someone who is, please apply on line and we will be happy to tell you all about him.

And if you think you might want to give fostering a try, think about developing your own mission statement. It has helped us.

If you are interested in fostering, please fill out an application here: https://furkids.org/volunteer/foster-a-furkid/