How Fostering Dogs Changed My Life

I’ve never been a dog hater, and I’ve owned dogs a couple of times over the years, but I was never a “dog person”.

So when I recently declared I was going to foster a rescue dog, my loved ones exclaimed “but you don’t even like dogs!”.

The idea seemed practical enough: support a local dog rescue charity by fostering a dog and helping find a new “fur-ever home”.

I saw it as not only altruistic, but a way to use my strong organisational and administrative strengths for good.

My husband Craig wasn’t keen on it. He’s a dog lover for sure, but was resistant because he knew how easily people get attached to dogs, and what a big responsibility they are to look after.

As part of my education about dog rescue I learned the term “foster fail”, where a fair percentage of well meaning people foster a dog or cat, only to fall in love with them and adopt the animal themselves.

I emphatically declared that would not be the outcome for this foster family!

Craig eventually agreed to support the initiative because I was passionate about it and promised to do all the cleaning up and caring.

Fast forward a month after the appropriately arduous process of being approved as a foster carer was completed, we were delivered not one but two shi-tzus to care for.

Bam bam and Freckles. The boy and girl were about 3 years old, surrendered by a novice breeder who no longer wanted them and had tried to sell them on Gumtree.

I don’t recall how I convinced Craig to have two dogs in our care, but here they were, racing around our lounge room, part excited and part terrified, and into the arms of us and our kids.

Bam bam, the male, was excitable and rambunctious. Freckles, the female, curled into my lap like a baby.

And that’s where the trouble started!

Over the next month, the pair were vaccinated, desexed and monitored to understand their behaviours in preparation for their dog rescue profiles and working out the ideal home for them to go to.

As a breeding pair, there was also a quasi-scientific process to understand whether they were “bonded” meaning they would need to be adopted out together, otherwise they would fret about being separated.

Turns out, they were not bonded, and before too much longer, Bam bam found his new home with a delighted lady who was grateful for his companionship and energy.

But it was too late for me and Freckles. She had stolen my heart, with her cuddliness and easy going personality, fitting right in to our family and taking the hearts of our sons as well.

We adopted her. Text book foster fails.

I had in the process definitely become a dog person, or at the very least a “Freckles” person.

I became that person who prioritised dog friendly venues for outings, changed their daily routine around their pet and bemoaned our recent dog friendly workplace had to revert to “no pets” because of a restriction imposed by the building owner.

How did I end up this way?!

In short, I think it was the seduction of unconditional love without too much inconvenience that transformed me.

With our kids either living out of home, or about to, we were entering that “empty nest” stage and, honestly, I think this is why Freckles captured my heart the way she did. She tapped right into that maternal, nurturing side of me that was, unbeknownst to me, left wanting as the kids no longer needed it so much.

Freckles was already house trained, didn’t chew or destroy things, was happy hanging around the house all day, slept in her own bed downstairs, loved a walk and a cuddle.

Her excitement at seeing us come home in the afternoon, or for the first time each morning, was equally as enduring as her propensity for following me around the house the rest of the time. My little shadow with the adorable underbight and expressive eyes.

Such is the power of this love, she wriggled her way into Craig’s heart as well.

Now, I intuitively know, I will forever be a dog person, for this love and companionship that fulfills such a need. Research supports this. Dog people live longer and are healthier!

Like all great mysteries in life, I can only attempt to understand and explain this transformation. Like all great mysteries in life, I am grateful for it, I accept it and I will treasure it as long as I live.