This morning, Arwen left us on the next step of her journey. I don't know a lot about where she came from or where she is going, but I've managed to put together several pieces of the story.

Arwen is a Great Pyrenees puppy; a Big Fluffy Dog. She's somewhere around twelve to fourteen weeks old. She came up from Tennessee and spent a week with us, before heading up to New Hampshire. Big Fluffy Dog rescued a few litters late this summer, and she seems to have been one of these litters. She may have come from a family where there was domestic abuse, but I'm not sure about that.

I've been trying to help with rescues here in Connecticut and am especially committed to helping dogs from Connecticut shelters find their forever homes. I've been interested in fostering for a while. Yet we had an Barley, our old chocolate labrador. It didn't seem to fit for us to start fostering.

Then, Barley developed bone cancer, and after fourteen years of being our family dog, we had to put her down. We spent the rest of the summer without a dog, and agreed to start looking for a new dog in the fall.

I suggested considering fostering and prevailed. So we contacted a couple rescue organizations about fostering. Since we rent, we can't have 'bully breed' dogs, as much as I would like to. Some of the bully breed dogs are some of the sweetest dogs I've ever met.

One rescue I had spoken earlier with was the folks at Big Fluffy Dogs. We had talked about rescues and fosters in Connecticut. I expressed my concern about bringing dogs in from out of state. Connecticut shelters kills between two and three thousand impounded dogs each year. While that isn't as bad as Georgia, which I believe kills over 100,000 impounded dogs each year, it is still a problem, and just as I like to 'Buy Local', I encourage people look towards 'Adopting Local' whenever possible.

Currently, there are around a dozen Great Pyrenees mixes listed on Petfinder in Connecticut. Some are dogs that were surrendered by their owners for one reason or another. Some are dogs that have been brought up from the south. The story of some of the others is hard to tell. I don't want these dogs languishing in shelters in Connecticut while other dogs get shipped up from the South.

Another concern for me is the health of dogs brought up from the south. Have they been properly treated by vets? Have they been spayed or neutered? Are they up to date on their shots? Do they have heartworm or parvo? Massachusetts has come up with strict rules about what dogs can come up.

Big Fluffy Dog Rescue is in Tennessee and in Massachusetts. The dogs are properly cared for before they come up north. Then, they stay with foster families until they can find their forever home. Prada was one dog that came up from Big Fluffy Dogs, and we almost ended up fostering her. However, she ended up going straight to her forever home, so we didn't end up seeing her.

A couple weeks later, Arwen came up from Tennessee. The company transporting the dogs did not seem particularly good. They were five hours late and the dogs were a mess getting off the transport. We were supposed to pick up Arwen and perhaps another puppy.

When the transport arrived, a puppy was given to my wife along with Arwen's papers. Kim played with the dog and we talked a little about her. The problem was, the puppy wasn't a her. It was a him. Also, it wasn't a Great Pyrenees. It probably had some Great Pyrenees in him, but also probably some lab, or other breed. We ended up eventually getting Arwen. The problem is that the papers for the other dog were not around. It looked like the transport had randomly given out dogs and papers. So, this male Great Pyrenees, Labrador mix, had no papers and no one to pick him up. Since we were prepared to pick up two dogs, Arwen, and the dog, whom Fiona started calling Wesley, came home with us. Big Fluffy Dogs straightened things out and found that we have 'Gus' and that Gus' papers are with another foster family.

The next bit of confusion came when two people contacted us about picking up Arwen. The folks at Big Fluffy Dogs did a little more leg work and confirmed who was getting Arwen.

You can see the video that Fiona and I made of Fiona talking about the dogs here:

So, this morning, we got up early, and spent a bit of time playing with Arwen and Wesley (or Gus). By the time Arwen's forever family showed up, she was all tuckered out. We spoke with the folks adopting Arwen. They live in New Hampshire, fairly close to Portsmouth. They had had a cat for sixteen years who passed away a while ago. After the appropriate grieving period, they sought out a new pet and settled on Arwen.

We all had a great chat as Arwen got ready for her trip to New Hampshire. We were happy to see her head off to what sounds like a great life ahead. At the same time, there was sadness as we watched a wonderful dog leave our yard.

Wesley, or Gus, remains with us. I took Fiona up to a fair and it took our minds off of Arwen's departure. Kim stayed home, rested, baked, and looked after Wesley/Gus. It was a successful first fostering. We'll see what happens with Wesley/Gus and what lies ahead of us for other fostering adventures.