How did it happen? How did we become foster parents for children of the four legged kind?

When I was five, I was attacked by the neighbor’s dog, a Boxer. To me he seemed huge. His name was Rebel, and even that was scary to a five year old. We, my sisters and I, called him ‘Wild Dog’. He was always breaking out of his pen and coming down and knocking me over. Usually my mom was there to save me, but one evening she wasn’t. I ended up with stitches in my leg.

After that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with dogs. Of any kind. That lasted clear up until I met my husband. His family is a dog family, everywhere we went there were dogs, usually big breed dogs. German Shepards, Golden Retreivers, Labs, all types of big dogs. I hated them. I used to cower in the corner of his mother’s kitchen waiting for him, and hoping that Megan, his mom’s retriever, wouldn’t come near me. I even climbed up on the kitchen counter once trying to get away from her, it didn’t work. She just put her paws up on the counter and sniffed me anyway. (Megan is so gentle that she wouldn’t hurt a fly, it was all in my head.)

Then as my kids got older, they started to want pets. My son begged and begged for a dog, we got him a frog instead. Then came little sister, and the frog got forgotten. We told my son it died, when in reality we took it back to the pet store where we had bought it (three years later).

Finally in December of 2006, I gave in and told my husband that he could get the kids a dog, as long as it was a little dog. His best friend has a Jack Russell Terrier, a cute little thing that is deaf, and very well behaved. She follows him around, he takes her in his work truck with him (He sells tools and stuff out of a truck, kind of like Snap-on Tools, or Mac Tools, but not those brands – I can’t think of the brand he sells.) she follows him into all the shops without ever having to be leashed. We decided we wanted a dog like buy rx drugs without prescription that.

So on Christmas eve that year, we were calling around trying to find a Jack Russell Puppy. No luck. So we gave up for a while. Then we went to Erie, PA in March for a little mini vacation. What luck, we ran into a bunch of Jack Russell puppies. We choose the runt. They assured us that he was a breeding/show quality terrier, and two days later he was home with us.

He was supposed to be a playmate for our daughter. Well, it didn’t go exactly as planned. He chose me to be his person instead of her. He became my little lap dog, and he still is, now almost two years later.

I got it into my head then that I wanted to breed Jack Russell’s. We looked and looked for a female Jack that would make a good mate for him. But smooth coat, high quality Jack’s are abundant in this area. And after a few months, when I realized how much work a Jack Russell is (I spent hours trying to keep him entertained, so that he wouldn’t get into things he wasn’t supposed to, or chew on things he shouldn’t.) I gave up the search for Jill (that’s what I wanted to name the female when we found her.)

I gave it up actively, but every time I went anywhere, I always asked around for one anyway. Then I found one through Russell Rescue, a JRT, breed rescue organization. She was so cute and would have made the perfect mate for my little Jack. I immediately called the agency to find out why she was taken to the rescue. And like most JRT’s, the family that had purchased her didn’t realize how active Jacks are. I was thrilled, it meant she didn’t have any health problems and would be a perfect breeding dog. So I started the paperwork.

I got halfway through it, when the lady I was working with saw that I had a four year old daughter. Well, even though we already had a Jack, their policy is that because JRT’s aren’t good with small children, they won’t place one with a family that has kids under six. So my bubble had burst.

Then a few months later, talking to a lady at the vet’s office, I found out that the local ASPCA had just gotten in a female JRT. I immediately picked up my son from school and headed up to meet her. Well, the human society won’t place an un-spayed female dog with a family that has an un-neutered male. (By this time, I wasn’t looking for a breeding dog, just a playmate for our Jack.) So I hurried up and made an appointment to have my Jack fixed, (while I was in the car on the way up.)

When we got there, we immediately searched for her. She was mean. She wouldn’t let us anywhere near her cage, and snapped at all but one lady who tried to get her out for us. The lady was someone who volunteered there often, and she had had her eye on adopting the dog too, but she pointed us in the direction of a little boy mixed breed who had only a few days left before his time ran out.

He had been severely abused, and picked up by the dog catcher. When they got him, no one thought he was going to make it, he was in such bad shape, broken ribs, internal injuries, the works. He was so sweet though, and almost fully recovered from his ordeal. But due to the lack of space, they can only keep animals for so long before they have to be adopted or put down.

My son instantly fell in love. His black lab, that he had at his father’s, had recently been hit and killed by a car when he escaped, and he missed him terribly. I couldn’t say no when he asked for Lewy. The two belonged together. So Lewy came home with us that day, and he took the vet appointment for the following week and got neutered, saving Jack from losing his man-hood.

Getting the second dog was the best thing we had done since we originally got Jack. I no longer had to spend hours entertaining him. He was still my lap dog, but he and Lewy became best friends and entertained each other well.

It wasn’t long after Lewy became a part of the family, that the first stray dog wandered onto our property. A cute little beagle mix. We took him in and immediately starting trying to find him a home, because two dogs are enough in any house. After just a week we had placed him in a permanent home, where he’s still living happily today.

Then come Christmas 2007. We were shopping at the mall, and just happened to wander into the pet store. (My daughter was still asking for her own puppy, because Jack had become mine, and Lewy was my son’s.) The pet store had this poor little bedraggled Pomeranian. He was so dirty, that we thought he was all white, and just brown because of the filth. He had been there for over a month, and all his brothers and sisters had been sold. The poor little guy was pitiful. We got him out and he snuggled right up to me. So we talked about it while we finished our shopping, and he ended up going home with us also.

We told our daughter that Santa had saw us at the Mall and had given him to us to take home to her. It was love at first sight. She adored him, and quickly named him Snowflake. (It was after that that we bathed him, and found out that he wasn’t just dirty white, he was white and tan.)

Unfortunately, Lewy didn’t adore him. The day after we got him, I took all three dogs out together and Lewy tackled me in the driveway and tried to rip the puppy out of my arms. He bloodied the puppy up pretty good before I managed to untangle myself from the two leashes, and I only managed it with the help of my Jack. If it hadn’t been for Jack, Lewy would have killed the puppy before I could have gotten my legs untangled enough to stand up. The puppy spent the rest of that day in his kennel right beside my feet. Lewy laid and growled at him the whole day. That night, when everyone else got home, we worked with the two of them and they soon started getting along.

Just after Christmas, we took in the next homeless dog. A lab mix puppy whose family had to get rid of her because of their sons severe allergic reaction. She wasn’t hard to place, labs are in high demand in this area. We only had her for 3 days, before she went to a permanent home.

By this time, our names had gotten out as people who took in unwanted dogs. We’ve now placed quite a few of them. Some have worked out well, others – not so well. But we try our best.

Most of the time, if they are large breed dogs, we keep them in one of our out buildings, instead of the house. This latest, Bear – a Beagle/Lab/Collie/Aussie mix, arrived yesterday. On the phone his owners had told me he was the size of a Beagle. When they arrived, I thought they must be blind. I’ve never seen a Beagle that stood well over two feet tall on all fours. But I had already agreed to take him into the house.

So here I am now. I’ve got a dog that weighs almost as much as me, that’s trying to play with my little “kicker” dogs, and I’m half afraid of him myself. I do well with small dogs, but bigger ones I’m still not too sure of.

My son fell in love with Bear at first sight. He begged me yesterday to let him keep him. What’s one more dog mom, when there’s already three in the house? So I came up with the best solution possible. I called my son’s father, and begged him to take Bear. That way my son still gets the dog, but I don’t have to deal with it. His father has a Rottweiler puppy that needs a playmate, so I’m hoping it will work out great. Tomorrow, his father is coming to get him and Bear, to take them home and see how Bear gets along with Magic (the rottweiler). Let’s hope it works out!

As for me, I’m thinking that I’ve done enough to save as many dogs as I could. Can’t we retire from being pet foster parents? Then I’m reminded of why I started in the first place: “How Could You?” by Jim Willis. I give a copy of this to every former dog owner who drops me off yet another dog. If I have to feel bad for these poor unwanted animals, and thus open my home to them until they can find a permanent place, I want the people who are abandoning their animals to feel bad too.

Yesterday, Bear’s former owners cried when I handed them their copy. And in my opinion they should. They are only moving 3 streets down, yet they couldn’t take the time to find a place that allowed pets. The dog isn’t even a year old yet. People like that shouldn’t be allowed to purchase animals, in my opinion. Bear had been a Christmas present for their youngest son last year, and already they don’t want him. So what was the point of purchasing him?

Animals are NOT DISPOSABLE objects! If you purchase or take an animal for free, you take the responsibility that goes along with it. You don’t just give it away when it inconveniences you.

Even though my dogs drive me crazy sometimes and I threaten to send them away, I can’t imagine life without even one of them. Although I’ve only had Jack for not quite two years, Lewy for almost a year, and Woobie generic acomplia rimonabant (Snowflake) for 10 months, they are a part of our family. Our family wouldn’t be complete without them.

I just don’t know how people can be so cruel and thoughtless! We do our part to help those who can’t help themselves – Do you?

Hi – I just voted in Care2.com’s “America’s Favorite Animal Shelter” contest to help my favorite local group, Humane Society of Westmoreland County, win a grand prize of $10,000. Think of the homeless pets we could save with $10,000! But I need your help to get enough votes to help Humane Society of Westmoreland County win. Please vote here: http://www.care2.com/animalsheltercontest/69477/?refer=20604.04.1223043148.1225