It’s been a couple of months since I lost my best friend, my dog of 15 years, Walter. [Even writing this now brings me to tears.]
As someone who has a big heart, I was inspired by a close friend of mine who loves to foster cats, and a couple of people I follow on Instagram who made it seem possible to do something extra for the world. Like fostering an animal.
I put my name down with a couple of agencies. Before I knew it, I had this small to medium white dog with a curly tail and a brown patch over her eye sitting in our living room.
That was just the start. From there, it was one big dumpster fire.
What happened from there
We had multiple accidents in the house. Toileting, difficulty sleeping because she’d cry, a couple of accidents where she jumped on the bed and wet it (got my pillow). It changed our whole routine. I was getting up a good hour and a half earlier than I’m used to. He was getting up earlier too, which made me feel bad and guilty because my partner had agreed to it, but I felt like I’d forced this change upon him.
It was such a shock after having a well-trained older dog, whom we got used to, his quirks and his needs (he was toilet trained, slept all day and walked nicely on a leash), who we knew we could trust not to tear something up.
I’m walking her, trying to socialise her, working out her behaviour without knowing her pound history. I’m trying to figure out a foster service run by volunteers. All of this on top of everything else happening right now. It’s stretched me to breaking point. There were tears and meltdowns and lots of stress.
If I could do it all again
I’m not sure I would. That changes day by day. When I started writing this, it was a HELL NO, when I went back a week later to edit, she was super cute cuddling my partner on the couch.Â
There are days when she snuggles in and it feels worth it. There are days where it’s like she’s had a drop of water on her and she turns from this cute little furry creature into an absolute demon gremlin.
I don’t want to fail her. I care about her future and want her to find her forever home. I hate to think what happened to her in her past and cry thinking someone could have mistreated this cute little demon gremlin. I’m stressed about what I’m putting on my relationship. Both of those things are true at the same time.
What I would encourage you to talk about
I’d encourage people to talk about expectations and hopes before doing this. What does it mean to each of you? Is the timing right?
How are you going to navigate things like walks, toilet training and practising basic skills and obedience training? What should you expect at that age and stage of life? Accept that there will be some casualties when it comes to sleep and routine.
Do you have a plan for when you both have to work late?
There’s a lot that we took for granted about my old dog. My beautiful Walter.