Sadie Goes Home!

This is Sadie. She was a shelter dog who came and lived with us for about a week. She was adopted from the shelter as a puppy and after more than 2 years she was returned. She had been left outside alone and as a result she got bored and began to develop the habit of escaping. She was stealth, and she could run faster than any dog I've ever seen. Beyond her escaping habit she was a great dog both indoors and out.

After our attempt to foster her proved too much to handle in our busy home, Lynn of Jefferson Feed and Garden Center took her into the store and fostered her there. I felt terrible that she couldn't stay with us, but I knew with her escaping habits she would be safer at the feed store. Last Saturday I attended the "Adopt-a-thon" event at Clearview mall with Sadie in tow. She generated a lot of interest and I felt confident it wouldn't be long.

This morning I received an email from Lynn letting me know that Sadie had gone for an overnight visit to meet her potential new pack members. Everything went well and Sadie's adoption was completed today!

Congratulations Sadie!

It turns out the "Adopt-a-thon" was a huge success as well, resulting in 46 total adoptions!
Saturday Adoptions16 Puppies/Dogs7 Kittens/Cats
Sunday Adoptions15 Puppies/Dogs8 Kittens/Cats

Meow!

Why Foster?

It is my opinion that foster homes are one of the best things a shelter animal can get short of a forever home. Animals in the shelter don't usually thrive in that environment and it can also be difficult to learn about the pet's personality which can contribute greatly to the animal's adoptability. When they come into foster care, the foster parents can assess their personality in a home environment, we can work on training and exercise and keeping the pets overall healthy both physically and mentally.

Fostering also helps the shelter and other pets there. By taking in one foster you are freeing up space at already over crowded shelters, giving many pets another chance at life that may have otherwise been euthanized due to lack of space.

Fostering is demanding, frustrating, exhausting and rewarding beyond words.

Many years ago I fostered a lot of different dogs, but after spending the last few years focused on family, I've kind of gotten out of the mix. Recently I sent in my volunteer application to Friends of Jefferson Animal Shelter and in less than a week I was driving to the shelter to pick up 3 orphaned kittens: Peaty, Penelope, and Molly.

Peaty and Penelope came from the same litter and Molly was an orphaned kitten found alone. She needed other kittens so we brought her into our litter. This is my first time fostering cats and it has been quite an adventure so far. You can see the kittens at play if you look at the web cam during the right times (hopefully you won't just see a big red dog's rump, lol)