Last week, I said goodbye to my fourth foster.

She returned to the shelter so that she could be put on the list for available adoption. When we got her, she was terrified of every little sound or movement. She didn’t trust humans at all. A lot of people think that this kind of behavior means that they were abused. Sometimes it does, but it also can mean either they had very little to no exposure to humans or it could just be their breed.

She spent the first two days under the chair in our living room. She started trusting our dogs immediately. One of the advantages I have in my foster situation is I have two pretty calm dogs who create a low key environment.

Eventually, with time, a lot of patience, and about a month and a half, she warmed up to me and learned how to trust and interact with humans. She was still jumpy and not very social, but she could walk on a leash, which she couldn’t do before fostering.

But not every foster experience is the same, and each foster can be there for different reasons. My first foster, which I talked about in this post, was another socialization case. She’s in a happy home now, living it up and being spoiled.

But my second foster was a home evaluation. It was just a day long, and it was to see how he would do in a home environment. The shelter is pretty stressful. It affects some dogs more than others, which makes it hard to tell how they will do if they go home. Hence, the home evaluation foster.

Another kind of foster is the high energy behavior training. My third foster had a crazy amount of energy. The stress of the shelter can make that worse. So he came into my home for 5 days to be observed and to work on some of his challenging behavior.

Fostering is something I really enjoy, something I’m truly passionate about. All of my foster dogs have found forever homes, except the last one (as far as I know). I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be a step on their path to their families. Have you ever thought about fostering, or do you foster animals? What is something you are really passionate about?