One of the coolest things I would like to do in my lifetime is start an animal rescue, focusing mainly on dogs, but I pretty much love all things furry and/or four-legged, so a complete animal sanctuary would be the ultimate dream. Several months ago, we fostered our first rescue dog, Taco, who would have been put to sleep if we hadn't taken him in that particular day. He wasn't exactly what we had expected and he only stayed with us for a week, but he touched our lives in such a special way. Just by opening our home, we saved an animal's life. We were blessed by that little ten-pound pooch because he showed us that we can make a difference, however small it may seem.
Fast forward to two weeks ago... I went to the Fairfield County Dog Shelter which is an extremely high-kill shelter since it is the only one in the county other than the Humane Society (which is extremely small and almost always full). Occasionally, I take Ben there to see the dogs and to play with one in a playroom. On this particular visit a couple weeks ago, there were several litters that had been dumped and there must have been at least 30 tiny puppies, all under 8 weeks old. I got to talking with a girl who worked at the shelter and she told me how a lot of really young puppies don't make it because they end up getting sick from the other dogs in the shelter and their immune systems just can't handle all the different diseases and viruses that they are exposed to. That really tugged at my heart strings and I ended up making a rash decision to take one home with the intention of possibly finding him a forever home. My son instantly fell in love and so did Mike (although he wasn't thrilled that I brought home a puppy without discussing it first). Good thing he is such a dog lover...I was kind of banking on that! I put an ad on craigslist and got quite a few responses. In the end though, it looks like this little collie-retriever fur ball is going to stick around here for good! We couldn't help but fall in love with him! He and Chopper are best friends and Hoshi is putting up with him, for the most part! Although we certainly won't be able to keep every foster dog we save, it's nice to know this guy will lead a healthy, happy life out here in the country with us instead of the ugly fate he may have awaited otherwise!
Our hope is to build a pole barn this year and we would have a dog run attached to it with a doggie-door and several kennels inside so that we will be able to continue to foster many more dogs throughout the years! For now though, we'll enjoy our little eight-week-old pup and all of his grunts, stinky farts, and late-night potty breaks... man, this is all too familiar! Did we adopt a puppy or another baby? I guess everything this precious comes with a price, but it's one that's worth being paid!
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