India is a foster dog staying with us temporarily until an
adopter or more permanent foster home can be arranged. She’s an eleven year old golden retriever who
was taken to the shelter by her former owners because they got a new puppy and
India ate the puppy’s food. She was very
stressed in the shelter, so my friend/co-worker Beth asked if she could spend a
few days with us.
I cannot think of many worse “reasons” for giving up a lifelong
pet. I know I shouldn’t judge, but I
have them pegged as the villains (at least in my book) who view pets as
possessions; India is registered and has papers, and they’ve had her since she
was a puppy. It sounds a lot like
trading her in for a new model to me.
I just can’t begin to comprehend abandoning your dog after a
decade of their companionship. I’ve had
Emma for over nine years, and I think about all of the life changes she has
been though with me. I couldn’t abandon
her.
India is proving to be a mostly agreeable houseguest; she’s
house trained, doesn’t get on the furniture (even though we’ve invited her to)
and is beyond patient with the quirky quartet of cats, even though
Milo seems
determined to find her breaking point. Fortunately,
she just walks away from him when he does things that would make more than a
few dogs turn him into a snack! Emma and
India have a somewhat uneasy truce; they are both older dogs, set in their
ways. Their ways just happen to be
different, but for the most part they seem to have agreed to live and let
live.
We have yet to make the leap into becoming full fledged
foster parents. We toss the idea around
semi-regularly, though we just don’t seem to quite be there yet. We have done some temporary fostering that
has worked out well. We are comfortable
with that, and like to think it helps in some small way. So India has been with us since Tuesday
evening and will remain with us through the weekend.
I have shared her story with nearly all of my rescue
friends, many of whom have shared with their rescue friends, so we are very
hopeful that the right person will hear about her soon. I am truly amazed by the devotion and energy
that some of these people have for helping pets (I keep saying I want to be
like some of them when I grow up), so I am sure that her story will have a
happy ending.
