Fostering is hard. There is the emotion burden of caring for a dog you may never see again. There are also difficult decisions to be made about training and temperament and disposition. Time spent away from my own dogs. Crate training. Damage to property - my carpets will certainly never smell right. Disagreements between dogs to be broken up. The cost of toys and treats, wear and tear on things my own dogs should have the privilege of destroying. Gas money spent transporting the foster from vet appointments to adoption days to training classes.
But every once in a while, I catch one of those crystallizing moments when I look at my foster and really
see them. I think to myself, "This is
so worth it -
you are so worth it."
I just had one of those moments, and I wanted to share it with you.
Rest easy, Jai. All's well.
Jai is such a sweet boy!
ReplyDeleteI have been running into this a lot with my foster dog, too. We are having to crate and rotate and all of the dogs are more stressed and attention-seeking than usual. Any second spent not exercising or training a dog is guilt-inducing.
ReplyDeleteI've run out of money for dog-entertainment products like bones or stuffies and the rescue can be hard to get to. The cats are threatening to rebel. My foster dog is constant motion but sometimes, if I'm lucky, for 5 minutes, he lays on my lap and cuddles calmly, giving me the softest eyes and sweetest tail-wags. In that moment, all I can think is "I'm glad I picked you." -Anne B.