Oh very young
What will you leave us this time
You're only dancing on this earth for a short while
...
And though you want to last forever
You know you never will
And the goodbye makes the journey harder still

Four and a half years ago, we said good bye to my yellow lab. He had lived a wonderful long life, and we were very sad to see him go. Earlier this summer, we said good bye to Barley. Barley had been Kim's chocolate lab for longer than I knew Kim and for several years longer than Fiona had been our daughter. It was a summer of grieving.

Fiona, who is very interested in dog rescuing wanted to adopt a new dog as soon as possible, but Kim wanted to wait a little while, to get past a little bit of her grief, as well as to not have a dog to worry about during our summer travels.

Well, it is Labor Day weekend. Fiona is back and school and we are settled into the fall schedule. It is a good time to start looking for a new dog. Should we get another lab? Larger dogs often have shorter lives than smaller dogs, and it is so hard to say goodbye. Labs are great dogs, and it would be wonderful to get a new lab. Kim's father and brother have dog allergies. They both have Golden Doodles. Getting some sort of poodle mix might be a good solution. It would be great to get a pit bull. Despite the bad press they get, they are some of the sweetest dogs I've ever met when they are properly raised. Unfortunately, we currently rent a house and raising a pit bull isn't an option right now.

Yet there is another option that I have been thinking a lot about, fostering a dog. Typically, when a dog gets rescued, she gets taken to a shelter. While this sure beats being out on the street or being put to sleep, shelters can be hard on dogs. They really need companions to care for them. So, various rescues find people to foster dogs for them. The dog lives with a family and is lovingly cared for. These dogs end up well socialized, nicely groomed, and are the sort of dogs that have a much greater chance of finding a forever home.

The problem with fostering, especially for people like Kim and Fiona, is that fosterers often fall in love with the dogs they are fostering. Some fosterers end up having several dogs that they have problems parting with. As one rescuer said, there is a fine line between fostering several dogs and hoarding. It has been so hard to say good bye to Rocky and Barley that the idea of fostering seemed too difficult to my wife.

Yet recently, I read that the Sadie Mae Foundation has lost the use of its kennel in Bolton. While they try to find new space, they need to find fosterers. I've contacted the Sadie Mae Foundation and offered my services.

Then, I saw a message on Facebook about Prada, Prada is an absolutely gorgeous Chocolate Labrador Retriever Weimaraner mix. She needed a short term foster in Connecticut, so I asked Kim and we volunteered. Kim was quite excited and mentioned it to Fiona as well as to her parents. Everyone was quite excited and fell in love with Prada just from the description and photo. Things were set up for us to pick up Prada on Saturday morning and keep her until she gets adopted.

Then, late last night, I got a message that Prada had been adopted and would be picked up Saturday morning. Our fostering services were not needed for Prada. Rocky and Barley were both in our lives for fourteen years and it was hard to say good bye to them. Prada was only in our thoughts for fourteen hours and it was hard to say good bye to her as well.

This morning, Fiona and Kim have been looking at the various dogs available for adoption at Big Fluffy Dogs. They have immediately fallen in love with half a dozen of the dogs. Any of them would be great additions to our family.

However, I am still hoping we will foster dogs. We can help more dogs that way. We can experience a wider variety of dogs in our house. Yes, it will be hard saying good bye more often, but I believe it is well worth it. In addition, fosterers who fail at fostering and want to keep a dog often get first dibs with the rescues they are fostering dogs for.

So, as of this morning, it is unclear if we will foster or adopt. It is unclear the breed or age of dog that will join our family, or when it will happen. What is clear is that we will find some dog that needs rescuing that will fit with our family as soon as possible.

If you are considering adding a dog to your family, you should really consider fostering. I could be a wonderful experience.