animal foster home
As upsetting as it is to admit, it’s impossible to take in all the animals of the world. Heartbreaking, I know, but trust me, I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. As a kid, I had an Iguana, snakes, gerbils, chinchillas, and finally, my parents agreed to my relentless nagging to get a dog. The only problem was that the dog was afraid of kids, so my dad, the main objector, had to take care of her solely for a few years. But her playing hard didn’t stop me from falling in love with dogs.
Luckily, many great people are taking in many dogs, but usually, as individuals, it’s tough to help more than one. I mean, whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.’ (from – Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:8 (37a), but still, how wonderful would it have been if we could have expanded the reach of our help? Besides volunteering at shelters and animal organizations, there is another wonderful way to enjoy all worlds. To enjoy a dog, a best friend at home without committing to a long-term relationship, and ideally be a part of finding a loving, stable home, allowing them the life they deserve.
Fostering an animal allows you to have a pet for a limited amount of time, allowing him the time out of a cage, the attention he usually needs to share with over a dozen other dogs, and most important part, it raises the chances of being adopted. The experience of coming to a shelter can be very intense; the dogs are not always in the best shape as conditions can get rough. With multiple dogs barking, scratching the cages, and needing to choose who you save and who you leave behind, even the biggest dog lover can be discouraged from adopting. On the other hand, being introduced to one dog, in a quiet calm environment, a much more relaxed dog after all the love you’ve been showering him with, you’re already halfway to adoption.
Over the past few years, we have fostered some of the cutest dogs in the world, all adopted within a week, and ever since we moved to Thailand, the resort allows us to foster a few dogs at a time. Meet some of the amazing creatures who have graced our sofa with an endless amount of fur and filled our hearts with love.
We found Nammi at a parking lot when we stopped to rest, on the way back from a trip up north. She crawled over to us from the other side of the parking lot, and we were sure she was injured and cannot walk. Apparently, she was just an unbearably cute baby, and she just wanted to cuddle. We couldn’t believe she doesn’t have a home, so we walked around the Kibbutz (a form of cooperative settlement in Israel) until someone gave us the heartbreaking news- she is one of many puppies left in a box at the gates of the Kibbutz every month. It turns out, that many people have puppies they do not wish to or cannot raise, and they believe they will find a home in a communal place like a kibbutz. But even their resources are limited, so these dogs remain wandering, and hopefully, some of them run into people who can find them a loving home. In our case, Nammi came home with us, she and Duja fell in love, and a couple of friends adopted her and gave her a caring, loving home. Her story has a very happy ending but is also a reminder that the only real solution is making sure there aren’t any more puppies, as cute as they may be, as there are already so many dogs out there looking for families.
Sweet Daniella, the embodiment of a cloud, the puppy from the toilet paper commercials, the softest creature alive, was in a kennel, and when winter came, the place was overflooded. She was too small to go to any other kennel, and so miraculously, we got to cuddle her for a week. She spent three days munching her way around the house and into our hearts. When an amazing family came to adopt her, I broke into pieces and cried for three days. But knowing she’d in good hands was a big enough comfort to move on.
Pretty-Boy was our first real challenge fostering. We met him on the way to a Shabbat dinner on an adoption day held in a park, hosting some of the sweetest dogs you’ve ever seen. He was the last dog un-adopted, and he was hiding in the dark behind a bush and was so happy we came over to pet him. Since we couldn’t bring him to the dinner, we arranged to pick him up the next day from the kennel. That experience was a vivid showcase of the importance of fostering. There is no way I could leave that place with my newly adopted dog if I didn’t already see him somewhere else. The closer we got, the more inhuman the smell and barking became—the dogs w there barging their cages, showing their teeth, and growling. I almost ran away, with my tail between my legs. Pretty-Boy was four times bigger than he seemed in the park in the dark, unsterilized, a four-year-old that never left the cage for longer than an adoption day.
He dragged us to the car, peed on every rock and tree on the way, and barked all the way home. We brought Duja downstairs to meet him, so they have neutral grounds for introduction, and as a thank you, he tried to bite her, as well as any other dog on the street. I was ready to give up, but we decided to try. Duja spent two days avoiding him in the house, as well as us, to make sure we realize how pissed she is, while we spent two days learning new methods to clean the couch from his piss. After two days, we had a new dog. He embraced the love we showered on him, realized he doesn’t need to mark his new home anymore, and all of a sudden, seemed like the small dog we saw in the bushes. Within a week, he was adopted by a wonderful couple who fell in love with his huge heart. What four days in a kennel didn’t do, four days at home, in a calm, personalized environment allowed.
