Would you foster a Mu?

It could be the best thing you ever do.

I tried not to foster Mu. He was an adorable puppy, and I immediately fell in love with him. How could you not? I was very happy when I was able to cajole another volunteer into fostering him because I already had plenty of dogs, one of whom was going through chemotherapy and needed my undivided attention. Mu was such a rascal that his first foster said she couldn’t handle him any more. He came to me as a last resort. He was beautiful and funny and happy, and very destructive. My first few months with Mu were a challenge. When he turned one year old, I started taking him to training to see how he would do. He was a natural at finding lost cats. Once he had a job, he became much more manageable and less destructive. He is still a rascal. He especially likes to tear apart couches. We have been on more than 1300 searches together. Mu has saved the lives of dozens of lost cats. Mu is my soulmate, my best friend, my working partner. He is a central part of my life and I would be so different if I had succeeded in avoiding being his foster.

On June 24th, volunteer Kari went to see about a white dog stuck in the blackberries in a storm water pond. When she got there, she told me she could use some help extracting the dog from the brambles. I drove to the area and saw that Kari had the puppy on a slip lead that she had put through the chain link fence. I’m not quite sure how she managed that! Possibly a magic trick. I went around to the other street and cut my way through the blackberries along the fence until I got to the dog. She was just a baby. She looked so sad that I was worried she might by injured. Once I cut her loose, I gently scooped her up. She didn’t weigh much. She seemed to be about six months old. I was able to lift her up over the top of the 6 foot fence and hand her over to Kari. Then I made my way around to the other side to help get her into the car.

Once I got to the other side, Kari already had her in the car, with her dogs Beba and Anna. I brought my chip scanner to the car to see if she had a chip. When I got in the car, the puppy exploded in happiness. She is the happiest creature I had ever met in my life. She was so wiggly that I couldn’t scan her for a chip. She banged her head into mine many times, writhing in ecstatic joy at meeting a stranger. I eventually managed to scan her pretty thoroughly and didn’t find a chip. I drove to Kari’s house to help get her into the house for overnight. I got to sit on the floor and have the puppy, named Blackberry by Kari, flop over my legs. It reminded me of when I bought Mu for $100 to get him away from a life of abuse and neglect. Mu was a happy puppy, but this girl is happiness cubed. I wished I could take her home with me. She would probably get along with Mu, Fozzie, and Tino. Sky would be a problem. Also, I am too busy. Of course, these are all the excuses I used when I tried to avoid fostering Mu, which turned out to be the best failure of my life.

Inexplicably, BlackBerry’s people never came to claim her at the shelter. I don’t know how someone could have such a wonderful, happy, sweet puppy and not be looking for her. Maybe they are in the hospital, or jail, or the cemetery. Maybe they just don’t realize what a wonderful girl she is. It’s been ten days, and Blackberry is still at the shelter. I’m amazed she hasn’t been adopted yet. Maybe everyone who loves dogs already has a house full of dogs, and thinks they don’t have time or space for a puppy. The shelter has recently started declining to accept strays because they are full. They are double maximum capacity. We are entering the busiest time of year for stray and lost dogs, and the shelter can’t take them. We can’t build a new shelter overnight, but people can foster. I have fostered more than 30 dogs, and I kept the ones that were unadoptable, for the most part. I kept the difficult dogs. If you could foster sweet Blackberry, it could be challenging, but it might be really easy. Undoubtedly, you would have fun and enjoy her. If you could foster her, you could create a space for one more stray or lost dog. If you fostered this sweet dog, you might end up keeping her for 15 years. You might find your soulmate. If you foster Blackberry, you could bring her to our weekly training sessions. She could be a target dog for training the other dogs. You could have her evaluated for becoming a search dog. She certainly has the energy, and I think she would be great at it. I would train her for free, if you adopted her. If you fostered Blackberry, you might find your soulmate and create a search dog that could save the lives of dozens of lost pets. At the very least, you could alleviate some of the pressure at the shelter.

Please contact the Kent shelter about Blackberry, who they have named Fenwick. You could certainly adopted her outright, but at the very least you could foster her, or another dog. Fostering saves lives. Fostering could change your life. Fostering definitely changes the life of the dog you save, and the dog you create room for.