Make a difference by fostering a pet! – Part 2

Guest Post – By my sister Ashley R. 

See Part 1 of Make a Difference by Fostering a Pet

After a few days we started naming our foster babies, the Labra-dane was named Tanner, the shiba inu we named Wiley (he was so mange-y and thin he looked just like a coyote), the 2nd batch of puppies we named Kya, Kylo, Kyeena, Stitch, Angel, Momocha, Tank and Molly. All was well on our funny farm until Kya, a 3 month old labrador mix fell sick with parvovirus. It’s  every dog owners worst nightmare, a deadly sickness that can only be treated by a very expensive vet visit. The local rescue that was funding the 2nd batch of puppies  agreed to pay for her 4 day treatment and the emergency vet down the road, and Kya made a full recovery. After hearing abiut the parvo outbreak at my home the New York rescue arranged transport for Tanner and her 10 puppies. Wiley the mangey shiba inu was adopted by family, where he is enjoying the air conditioned  life and is very fat. In the following 3 weeks 4 more puppies fell sick to parvovirus, and 1 puppy, named Angel died. The rescue that was funding the puppies finally told me they didnt have the finances to pay for anymore parvo treatment  so if any of the puppies fell sick they wouldn’t be able to save them. In  their words “if they make it they make it, if they don’t  they dont”. Days after the rescue dropped this on us, Molly fell sick with Parvo and passed away. I was at a loss. 

People in the neighborbood knew we were working with rescues, and we started finding new dogs and puppies in  our yard every day. People would just drop them over the fence and drive away, leaving the pups with no medical background on a property that was contaminated  by a deadly virus. Often times foster parents spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars of their own money on their foster dogs. Luckily for us finding homes for the drop off puppies was fairly easy considering their breeds and temperament, they didn’t catch parvo, but we were not out of the woods yet. The rescue who originally  “dropped” the parvo puppies on us eventually came around and took the puppies back, who were later sent to a rescue in Maine where they all had potential  adopters. After the parvo puppy batch we had to bleach  our yard, kill the grass and let the bleach soak down in to the soil, we scrubbed the inside of the house from top to bottom to make sure we killed the virus. when we felt we were rid of the virus we started up again with rescue. Illness is always a risk and you need to work with rescues who will not leave you with sick animals. There are some great ones that will make sure the animals get all the vet care they need. Your foster experience doesn’t have to be as hard as mine has been. Even with it being hard, it is worth it. 

I hear a lot of people say they don’t foster or rescue because they don’t have the time, or one person isn’t going to make that big of a difference. I am only 1 person, with 1 house, on 1 acre of land and in 12 months I saved the lives of over 75 cats and dogs. I spent 3 hours every day with my wife and kids at a local Non Profit livestock  rescue mucking stalls, hauling hay, cleaning cages and showing these animals unconditional  love. You don’t have to give three hours a day though! Do what you can! 

What can you do to make a difference?

1. Volunteer at your local shelter

2. Spay and Neuter your pets

3. Donate to local Rescues in your area

4. Foster (Just one animal at a time will make so much of a difference!) 

5. Don’t shop, ADOPT! A lot of people have the common misconception that shelters are full of pit bulls and mutts, but the truth is over 25% of dogs in shelters are pure bred.

6. If you decide to adopt, consider a black dog or cat who are less likely to be adopted because  of the color of their fur.

Be the difference, save a life.