Rescue Me: The Road to Becoming the Crazy Dog Lady Part 2

And then came the call...

"Wanna puppy?"

Well of course we want a puppies. Or 3. Or 5..???

School had just ended and what the heck. The girls had been begging me for puppies. Itty, bitty, baby puppies.

Enter Droopy(L), Harry(R) & Hogan(Middle)

and then a week later Kim & Khloe Pawdashian.

Yep, 5 puppies plus our Coco.

So that brings us to 7 fosters from April to early July. Who would have guessed that after years of being a devout cat person I would suddenly start to become The Crazy Dog Lady????

8.) Huckle
9.) Frannie
10.) Big James
11.) Honey
12.) Bart Cooper
13.) Malcolm
14.) Gabby
15.) Angel
16.) Pippa
17.) Samson (Legacy)
18.) Herbie
19.) Holland (Nanuk)
20.) Rousseau
21.) Rachel
22.) Cassidy

And soon Big Fluffy Dog Rescue, our new network of friends and these precious, sometimes precocious, pups started becoming our lives. They became our priority and our passion. Rescuing dogs, fostering homeless dogs began to completely fill the hole in our lives.

23.) Fielding
24.) Scarlett
25.) Teton
26.)Charlie
27.) Belle
28.) Clarice
29.) Sarge
30.) Jake
31.) Chloe
32.) Buddy the Elf
33.) Elliott
34.) Ryker (Legacy)
35.) Daisy
36.) Rhonda
37.) Collin (Legacy)
38.) Joey (Legacy)
40.) Stanley (Legacy)
41.) Sailor (Legacy)
42.) Maddie (Legacy)

With each new face we learned so much more about dogs, rescue, teamwork, patience and love. We made new friends. We saw our teenage daughters choose to come out of their rooms, put their electronics down and be a part of something special.

There is nothing to prepare you for the moments that come with fostering these dogs.

So many have come to us scared, shy and broken.

Some in pain or healing from old injuries and neglect.

Many are not housebroken.

Several have thought the leash a most horrific torture device.

One we couldn't touch for the first 3 days he was here.
Why?
Because he had never known a loving touch.

Some flinch at loud noises, some at sudden movement,
some at everything.

Cassidy was too scared to even make eye contact
for the first 2 weeks we had her.

So many people say

"I can't foster because I would want to keep them all."

"It would be to hard to let them go."

So it wold be easier to sit by and know that they could die in a shelter?

In a shelter lying on the cold, wet concrete floors?

Is it better to know they are taking room where another dog could have been saved in his place?

A dog that will be euthanized because the shelter is full and they are older, sick or just not as adoptable as others.

We have opened our home and hearts to 32 full-time fosters and numerous overnight, weekend and temp fosters in the 11 months since we started with Big Fluffy Dog Rescue on April 6, 2013.