The Benefits of a Foster Agency by Melissa
Meadow, an ICHBA foster dog, giving a high-five
Although I found two of my dogs at shelters, I never considered looking for one through a welfare agency that fosters their homeless animals because I never really understood what it meant. But after fostering ten dogs and one kitten in seven months for ICHBA (I Could Have Been Adopted,) if I ever have to look for a dog again a “fostering-agency” is the only method I’ll use; it’s a great way to find a dog that matches a family’s lifestyle.
A dog that has been fostered means that he or she lives with another family until they can be re-homed. It means that the dog or cat has been “test driven,” for lack of a better term. Besides the fact that a dog’s temporary family will start socializing them, a foster family can tell you all kinds of useful information: temperament, whether housebroken or not, energy level, food intake, potential size and destruction level, leash-training, snuggling abilities, friendliness towards other animals, humans, and children.
For instance, the family that recently adopted our foster dog Benny had adopted a different dog two weeks before from a local government shelter. It turned out that the first dog, Max, was aggressive and violently bit and growled at the sight of other animals. This is a family with three small, active children, ages five to seven-ish who were looking for their first dog, excited about taking him to Little League games and on walks through the neighborhood. Completely unequipped to handle a dog like Max, they had no choice but to surrender him to a no-kill shelter they had found in Nashville. It was a traumatic experience for the family, and when we were there for our meet and greet, the little girl, wearing colorful polka dot socks, asked her mom if Benny would ever get to play with Max.
If I had had the opportunity to foster Max and this family had called about him, I would have known that he had fear-aggressive tendencies and been able to warn the mother long before we started the adoption process, and maybe even recommend a more laid-back, socialized dog in our program.
Fostering for ICHBA has been a great experience, mainly because it’s a small organization that honestly cares about animals. Donna, ICHBA’s founder, doesn’t worry about any of the nonsense that big time agencies pressured by output numbers have to deal with. I’m not knocking any kind of animal welfare shelter. In the end, we’re all on the same team, but frankly, the way ICHBA operates is truly unique in a time period when corporations seem to rule.
The coolest thing about working for Donna is that she asks her foster families to tell potential adopters the complete truth about our foster dogs, both good and bad, no matter what. And she never pushes animals through the system. She trusts, us, her foster families, to tell her when the dogs are ready to be adopted out. In the interim, she assumes all their health care costs, including flea and tick prevention.
Remember, Bentley? The Pit-Labrador mutt who left scars on both Mason and me? He lived with us for five months and took chunks out of both our legs on more than one occasion, but Donna wouldn’t give up on Bentley and she wouldn’t let us give up on him either. Now, Bentley is on his way to Wasilla, Alaska to live with a firefighter, who has military experience working with high energy, smart, and aggressive service dogs. In other words, Donna found the perfect fit for a dog that otherwise could have been euthanized.
I’m not good at asking people for money. In fact, I downright hate it. But if you have a few bucks, and you want to help, I can guarantee that your money will go straight to the animals that Donna saves through a network of smoothly- run foster families. Because of her efforts over the past eighteen months, 147 dogs in Robertson County have found homes. So this week, the Farnival is trying to help ICHBA raise enough money to pay for these four surgeries:
Courtney: eye surgery for growth $122.00
Spot: eye surgery to correct lower lid $136.00
Benny: extraction of abscessed tooth $127.00
Foxy: heartworm medication $80.00
Total: $465.00
If you would like to help, thank you so much. If you want your money to go to a specific animal and surgery, just indicate it in an email to us: thefarnival@gmail.com. If you can’t, don’t want to, or already contribute to other causes, then right on. I really appreciate that you even read our blog. Thanks for all your positive comments.