As you may know, I often take in foster dogs as a volunteer with a local dog rescue (Jake’s Wish). In October of last year, I picked up Tessa from the shelter, and just fell in love with her. If I didn’t already have 2 of my own, I’m sure I would have adopted her. Then, in November, I was presented with an opportunity to save a Maltese mix from certain death at the Long Beach Shelter (she had less than 24 hours left at the shelter when I found out about her). With the help of many others and my rescue’s support, Angel was saved and relocated to the Bay Area to stay with me.
This was the first time I’d ever had 2 foster dogs at the same time. I have to say, fostering is highly rewarding, but having 4 dogs all at the same time showed me that 3 dogs is really my limit, and that if I want to continue fostering, that means having only 2 of my own. And after moving last month, I am not allowed to have 4 dogs anymore. Sadly, Tessa had to go to another foster home, but Angel was able to stay with me.
All my foster dogs have a special place in my heart, but I think Angel and Tessa will always be extra special. Angel was really the first case where it was clear this dog will die if I don’t do something immediately. And with Tessa, well, she fit in so well at my house. I am amazed that it took as long as it did for both these cuties to find their homes!
Tessa came to me shortly after having a leg amputated, and she needed a few trips to the vet to get her stitches and staples removed before she was ready for adoption. At adoption events, we had lots of people interested in hearing Tessa’s stories, but no one who was seriously interested in adopting her. She also was not getting any applications submitted online. A few weeks ago, Tessa finally found her match and went to her forever home. I think it may have been even harder for her second foster family to say goodbye than it was for me.
Angel allegedly had a lot of medical issues. Turns out she has skin allergies which caused her ear infection, and she had a UTI that was very treatable. A few vet visits for her and some allergy meds every day, and our little Angel was ready to find her forever home.
With Angel, we had a couple of potentials that said they were serious, only to change their minds at the last minute. “Oh, we want a younger dog”. You know, that’s really fine, but Angel’s age was known in advance and it’s annoying to support or coordinate a special meeting for a potential to have them not adopt. This was the second time we’d made special arrangements for a potential adopter to meet Angel.
When I rescued Angel, I knew that because of her possible medical issues and her age (7-10 years), that she could be hard to place in the right home. She is a super sweetie, a little couch potato. However, she also has allergies and because of that she has thinning fur/hair and her tail is practically hairless!
During the time that Angel was with me, she has gone to doggie day care along with my dogs. And, as it turns out, one of the wonderful employees fell in love with my little Angel and adopted her this past weekend. 🙂
So now all my foster babies have been adopted, and it’s back to just Indy and Roxy. And that’s ok. We’ll foster again in the future!
We are all very happy to see Tessa and Angel in their forever homes, but that doesn’t mean we don’t miss them!
You have such a big heart to let all of those pups come in your home. It’s good to know there are people like you out there helping rescue animals in need.
I wish I could have adopted Tessa, but it just wasn’t meant to be and I’m so happy she found a good forever home.
Tessa and Angel are alive and in the BEST forever homes they could ask for. All because you opened your home and saved their life. You drove on a moments notice to save Tessa and you coordinated your own rescue plan and drove on Thanksgiving to save Angel. You are Amazing Brie. Jakes Wish is lucky to have you and your support to rescue all these precious babies!
A story with a happy ending, glad that it all turned out fine. Honestly I believe that these cuties had a lot of luck getting adopted considering their special need. Unfortunately, in my country, such dogs so not raise any attention for adopters. Everyone want a puppy. Only progress that we’ve made is that now people are adopting street dogs a lot more than before.
I’ve been to many shelters and I can say with big disappointment that few people pass those gates looking for a dog to adopt, unless it’s a puppy.
People need to be educated about responsibility of having pets in general.
A huge frustration is when you see people with dogs or cats and they couldn’t care less if unwanted puppies are born and abandoned in bags, in rivers, in other cities, in the woods and so on.
And then same people and others complain because too many are free on the streets, running in packs and sometimes attacking them.
Those people that adopt puppies.. they forget about this huge problem and vicious circle where we forget about the responsibility of having a pet. And then we end up with more abandoned dogs.
I’ve heard some insane words like “oh, I wouldn’t castrate my dog, he’s a male, he need to meet some females, let the female dog owners take care of they own”, OR “It will ruin my dog if I do this to him/her”. Really? then how do we stop abandonment?
I am open to any suggestions of educating better these people in seeing the problem and dealing with some solution.
Because.. see? we end up with such little souls like the ones you talked about and who’s gonna take care of them?
…
Very upsetting.
Ada, when I was there last month, there were 2 adorable stray dogs at OMV (I’m sure you saw the picture Jocelyn posted on Facebook). I wish there was some way I could take those dogs home with me to have them adopted in the US. I just know they could find good homes here.
I know of some other organizations that transport dogs from countries like Taiwan where there are a lot of street dogs over to the US for adoption. I wonder if there’s anything like that for Romania, or if anything could be started?
Also, I support an organization called Romania Animal Rescue. They are based here in the US, but they send teams of vets to Romania and sterilize as many street dogs as they can. I think they also are trying to educate people on why it’s important.
And yes, both Tessa and Angel required special adopters (to look past Tessa’s missing leg and Angel’s age and allergies). That’s actually why I rescued both of them. I was looking for a foster dog, and the rescue gave me a choice to save Tessa or a puppy. Well a puppy is going to get adopted from the shelter no problem, but a three legged dog? It was clear which one needed to be rescued!