It will never cease to amaze me how quickly one can get attached to a living being they share a home with. I would personally wager that it is impossible to live with a dog for longer than 3-weeks without losing the ability to imagine living without them. Of course, the same goes for children to an even greater degree. It is difficult to imagine the emotional discipline possessed by foster parents. My uneducated guess is that this discipline is learned, rather than innate.
Furry Friends
It feels like it was just yesterday that I was arguing to my wife that it was absolutely impossible that we take on the responsibility of a dog. At the time, we had come across several adoptable dogs without living with them. The key takeaway is that we did not live with these potential companions. Without spending extended periods of time with them, it was insanely easy for me to distance myself from them. A couple years later, one of our new room-mates came with a dog. We were happy to welcome a dog into the home, because we love dogs. Our not owning a dog should not be confused with being anti-dog, we simply couldn’t handle the responsibility at the time. I would give it about a week before the only pictures on our phone were starring Zoey the American Boxer puppy. It was probably only another week later that we were scouring local Boxer rescue organization’s adoptable dogs hunting for a dog to take care of as our own.
Of course, room-mates don’t live together and at some point Zoey moved on to another home along with her owner. With that distance left my strong desire to own a dog and I remembered why it was impossible to own a pet. This continued through all encounters will eligible adoptees, which were plentiful. My mother is very active in the dog fostering community and she ran into a sticky situation where two of her foster dogs did not get along well. As a result, we volunteered to keep an eye on the newest addition to the household, Nellie the Olde-English Bulldog. She was heavily abused prior to entering the foster system and was missing her right eye completely. It literally took two days before we fell in love with her and had her sleeping in our bed. We were in a tough financial position, but couldn’t imagine a world where we didn’t make things work. That three years ago, Nellie no longer sleeps in our bed, but she represents about 99% of the photos on our phones.
Within about a year of adopting Nellie, we may have welcomed a new buddy into our home. Zeek is an 80-lb Pitbull German-Shepherd mix who lost his owner to cancer. As a result, the friendly little guy happened to move into our home. Like all those that came before him, he became an instant staple. He spends every waking moment begging to be let under a blanket or to be taken outside to play fetch. He is still technically my mother’s dog, but there are frequent discussions regarding his potential theft. At this point, I have realized that I would never be capable of fostering a human child. I can only imagine degree to which they would grow roots in our hearts.
