Opinion | Fostering a pet isn’t as hard as you think

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A cold, wet nose is nudging my foot under the table as I drink my morning coffee. I look down at my dog. Well, not really my dog, it’s my foster dog. Maya is the 20th dog that my husband and I have shared our home with over the last few years. Twenty dogs that we bathed, brushed, walked, comforted, medicated, played with, picked up after and loved only to have them leave. Why would we do such a thing? Why would anybody?

All community shelters are overrun with pets needing homes. Fostering a pet gets it out of the shelter, freeing a space for another dog, cat or critter in need. For every pet in a home, another life can be saved.

Fostering prepares animals for adoption by helping them get accustomed to a home environment. Some of our dogs were from puppy mills and hoarding situations, while others were street dogs or breeder releases. Some have never been inside a house. There is no joy like watching a dog do zoomies around your living room for the first time.

What’s in it for you? Fostering provides companionship and a chance to make a significant impact on a pet’s life and in the larger community. Need more exercise? Foster a dog. Need some cuddles? Foster a lap cat. Want to model responsibility and empathy to your children? Foster a pet.

When your foster leaves your home, it is a bittersweet moment. You are thrilled they get to start their new life, yet you miss their special presence around your home. Soon, it’s on to your next foster.

Myth: Fostering a pet is expensive.

Truth: The rescue organization pays for everything. Food, treats, leashes, toys, beds and comfy blankets. If the pet needs medical care during the time you are fostering, that’s covered as well. Fostering doesn’t cost you anything.

Myth: I work outside the home; I am not around enough to have a pet.

Truth: Not a problem. Fostering can fit into any lifestyle. It is expected that you will leave your house, go out for meals, go to a movie and have a life. Even if your foster dog is crated in your den or the cat is in the spare bedroom, anything is better than being in a cage in a shelter with many yowling cats and barking dogs.

Myth: I don’t have a lot of experience with cats, dogs and critters.

Myth: I know myself; I would want to keep every pet that I foster.

Truth: Remember, you go into this knowing that this dog, cat or critter is not yours and is destined to live with another person or family. Most rescues let you choose the family the pet goes to, so that’s a comfort. I keep in touch with many of the adoptive families that have one of my previous foster dogs. And if you decide that you just can’t part with your foster, then you join the sacred ranks of Foster Fail. As I write this, I am looking at Ginger, the No. 18 foster dog that I happily failed with.

The saying goes: Saving one pet will not change the world, but for that pet, the world will be forever changed. And you too will be forever changed as you welcome the laughter, joy and the rewards of being a foster.