When it All Comes Together

I want to promise him a soft place to lay forever.

Helping with rescue is hard. It's heartbreaking, it's frustrating, and it's physically exhausting. Several of my friends foster and I see them go through the same emotions and that can make me just as sad.

Saturday we helped send many great dogs to their forever homes. Letting your foster go can be difficult. Wendy said it best on her blog (http://crazyandlittle.blogspot.com/) when she described it as feeling like your telling your foster their not good enough to stay. And even though that is not the case, you know that someone along the way has said that to them. And as I brush the coat off my foster dog, that I know grew in because of all the cold nights he spent outside, and as I rub his calloused joints that I know came from sleeping on the concrete shelter floor, and as I run my fingers over his scars that I don't want to know about, I am sad all over again.

To cheer up we went for a walk in the coulees with our little "pack". Along the way we saw a dog that looked very much like one of our former fosters. Sure enough when we approached, the couple confirms that he was in fact an old foster dog, who came from a very disturbed home. As he runs up to us tail wagging I pet his soft glossy coat and hear the smiling couple tell us how wonderful he is, I have to laugh. This comes at such an appropriate time when we are all questioning the fate of our fosters. To see him happy and confident just confirms what the rescue is doing for them.

So as I scrub the "marking" off the leg of my couch, and wipe up this evenings dinner that obviously didn't agree with my fosters stomach. I'm smiling because I know that in the end it's all worth it.

And on a high note, the second time he hit the Christmas tree, which would be confusing to even the most seasoned dog, so I think we are heading in the right direction!