What is this rescue stuff all about anyway?

Those who know me know that I am all about new adventures -- I believe this is something that runs in the family because my parents are definite 'new adventurers' and always looking for something new to do or try (mainly their big hobby is moving - we have moved more times than I can keep track in my lifetime, all in the same town for the most part, and everyone who knows them knows they are habitual movers. In fact they just moved again this past weekend). My husband, Justin, quickly learned this about me and I couldn't be more lucky that when I said 'Let's foster dogs', he agreed without hesitation.

We had always thought about adding a dog to our family, but Brooklyn was perfectly content being the only dog and even though I socialized her TONS when she was younger, she was never really interested so much in other dogs. She prefers her tennis balls and people. So it was a decision that was very difficult for us to make because we knew that she didn't really want a sibling and was perfectly happy being an only child. She is also (in our opinion) the definition of perfect so it was hard for us to want to change that, life was so easy with just her. Fostering gave us a perfect chance to have another dog around while saving them at the same time and knowing it was only temporary - it was a win-win for everyone and it gave us a chance to see how Brooklyn reacted to having another dog in the home. We decided on the local Golden Retriever Rescue because Brooklyn was our reason for doing this and we absolutely adore the breed. We applied, they did a home visit, and we were accepted to be able to foster - YAY! Much to our disappointment, however, several months passed and we didn't hear from anyone about fostering :( We attended a fundraising event for the rescue, with Brooklyn, in May 2010 and mentioned that we were waiting to foster -- I don't know if they were waiting to see how she reacted with other dogs around or if it was just timing, but within a couple weeks of the event, we were contacted about our first foster dog. Now I want to preface this by saying, Justin and I had many serious conversations about fostering and whether it was 'for us' -- in these conversations were questions like 'are we going to do this TOGETHER?' or 'I'm not going to be doing this alone, right?!', and 'Let's have a plan so we know exactly what we will do and handle 2 dogs vs just 1', etc. which were always met with an enthusiastic 'oh yes, we are doing it together and I will help with everything'. I'm a major planner so we had a plan put together for every situation possible. Great - let's do this!

Enter Jax -- our first foster dog. Now when I thought of fostering, my naïve self, thought of the cute little goldens you see everywhere or think of when you hear golden retriever. The day Jax came to our home - all we knew about him was that he was an outside dog, around 6-7 years old, and his family no longer wanted him because he kept trying to get inside and they were afraid he would get their little Chihuahua that was an inside dog. It also happened to be a day that Justin was out of town for work. So much for being in this together, huh?! When Jax arrived, I was shocked to see he was a massive 130lbs and looked miserable.

Meet Jax (left)!

This poor dog was so overweight, he could barely move. After we got him inside, the rescue lady was going over his vet visit and what fostering Jax would entail. Aside from him needing to lose 35-40lbs, he had ear infections in both ears with medication to give him for that. He had a hot spot, which at the time I had never even dealt with those. There was medication to put on his hot spot and instructions for keeping it clean so it did not get infected (along with a cone for him to wear to keep him from scratching at it and making it worse). Finally, he had worms (of course) and medication that would 'help with' his diarrhea. WHAT?! This huge dog also has diarrhea?? I was almost in tears at this point - not only did he weigh more than I did, he has all this medication and health problems. This is not what I had in mind when I signed up. I wanted to say 'I can't do this' or 'Never mind, I change my mind', but I am not a quitter. I cried for a few minutes when she left (and I'm sure called Justin and yelled at him for not being home which keep in mind, we had only been dating for a year and a half at this point so this was a lot to take on early in a relationship anyway) and knew that I just had to get on with it. So that is what we did -- much to my surprise (and what made the situation even more sad), Jax LOVED to play. He was so happy bouncing around the backyard and chasing balls with Brooklyn -- I could not believe someone would let him get so large when he actually loved to play and chase balls. It was very clear nobody ever played with this poor guy. Now let me just say when you see a dog of this size and his little legs trying to run, you hold your breath in hopes that he can actually run with all that weight. Luckily, he did just fine with running -- and ran up and down our small hill in our yard after tennis balls and just because he was so excited that someone was paying attention to him. We had so much fun introducing him to 'the finer things in life' and even took him on vacation to the beach with us.

After only a week, a good diet, and exercise program, Jax had already lost 10-15lbs. We only had Jax for a month, but in that month, he lost a total of 30 lbs.

We could not believe the transformation of this big teddy bear, it was simply amazing -- he was the sweetest dog you will ever meet. He has a MAJOR love of stuffed animals and I am certain he had never owned one in all his life. He now has more stuffed animals than he can count and he takes pride in 'hoarding' them ALL. When he had a cone, he would put them in his cone and walk around with his head held high to keep them from falling out. It was the best experience and sight to see -- we could not be more proud of our big boy.

The day I got an email from the rescue saying they had a great applicant for Jax and to read over their application and let them know what we thought. A flood of emotions hit me at this point, during the fostering process, it just slipped my mind I guess that eventually he would be leaving us. At this point, I realized he was about to leave our home and have a family of his own forever. I was so excited for him, but so sad for us. We had gotten used to him being around and loved to see his smile waiting for us each time we came home, he is truly an amazing dog. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head - 'will he think we are giving up on him too just like his last 'family' did?', 'does he think we just don't want him or that he was not a good boy?', 'will his new family appreciate him like we do?', 'will his new family give him tons of soft places to lay and tons of stuffed animals for him to love on and carry around the house?'. I felt so many emotions, this particular family had another dog and they were very sweet. When they came to our home to visit with Jax, they were really great, but I had a 'feeling' and I just wasn't sure why. We explained all about Jax and that he isn't super energetic (obviously), what he likes/ dislikes, etc. and at the end of the visit, they were ready to take him home (a home visit had been done prior so everything was ready for him to be adopted). We had our reservations, but being our first foster dog, we knew they would be a great home and wasn't really sure why we had reservations about them, so we agreed to allow them to adopt our sweet Jax. So many tears were shed and we worried all night long about how Jax was doing and if he was happy. First thing the next morning, I had a missed call from this couple and I got really worried that maybe something had happened (did I mention they lived 2 1/2 hours away?). I immediately called back and they said they did not feel Jax was the perfect dog for them and their dog wanted to play, but Jax wasn't really a playful dog (as we had told them). Without hesitation, we said we will meet you halfway and get him, no problem. I was relieved, we were getting our Jax back and we could not have been happier to see him. At this point, I wanted to say okay let's just keep him - he came back, he's ours :) I knew that we weren't ready for another dog though so the search would continue for Jax's forever home.

A week later, we were contacted again about a 'perfect application' for Jax and that this couple had been very involved with the rescue so those emotions all came flooding back again, but the minute I talked with his 'new mommy', I knew they were more perfect than I could have imagined. All those fears were laid to rest the minute I saw them with Jax (we told ourselves that they would be okay for him if they just got down on the floor with him and didn't care about anything but him - and that is exactly what happened). It was a match made in heaven. Jax even had a sister, Hailey, in his new home. Hailey has since passed on to the Rainbow Bridge and will never be forgotten.

The day Jax left our home, there were MANY tears shed, but I was so proud that we had officially fostered our first dog. Seeing him with his new family was a feeling I can't even explain - and something happened that I didn't even expect. His new parents are two of the most amazing people we have met and became two of our closest friends we have here in NC. They are heaven sent and I had no idea that we would keep in such close contact to this day. They puppy sit for us and have been there through the years with us - we are so lucky to have met them and to be able to see Jax all the time.

We knew that this was only the beginning for us and our rescue journey -- but I don't think we truly knew exactly what was in store for us in the future....

Please adopt a shelter pet and spay/ neuter your pets, this is a life changing decision - 'rescuing one dog may not change the world, but for that one dog, the world will be changed forever'

~ Sarah