This post is a continuation of Lost Dog on My Doorstep: Part 1 and Part 2, so if you haven’t read those, you might want to read them first to catch up.
Well, as I mentioned before, not a single no-kill shelter in town had room for Gracie, and neither did any of the rescues we contacted. In fact, they’re all hurting for foster volunteers right now. But, one rescue agreed to represent Gracie as a courtesy if we would cover all of her vet costs, foster her ourselves, board her, or find someone else to foster her.
Yes, Gracie. Smartypants. But I only have so many.
What I mean by “represent her as a courtesy” is that they are not technically taking her on as one of their own rescue dogs, but will create a courtesy listing for her at PetFinder and will show her at adoption events with their other adoptable pets. (I didn’t take the photos for her PetFinder listing, those were taken by the rescue rep. I offered some of my photos to use, but she said that she needed to show Gracie standing up so that people could get a better idea of her size. Fair enough.)
We have indeed covered all her vet costs (vaccinations, tests, spay) and four days of boarding so far, but guess what? Good news! A great family volunteered to foster her! We will pick her up from the vet kennel tomorrow (August 31st) to take her to her first adoption outing at a local PetCo. Then, she will be picked up at the end of the day by her new foster family.
There is no way to say how absolutely thankful we are to those folks for offering to foster her. We will pay for her food and other expenses while she is there… they just need to care for her and provide her a good temporary home. I just pray that everything works out at their home and that they are able to keep fostering her until she is adopted. If not, she may have to go back into boarding. But they have two Labs and are experienced with large active dogs, so I have a lot of hope that it’s going to work out.
a family to give me tons of love and playing and treats. K?”
In my previous posts, a lot of people have commented that Gracie is very lucky to have wound up on our doorstep; and that we are just fantabulous people for going as far as it takes to help her get rehomed. We’re really not, so please no more patting us on the back. The real heroes are those who are out there working in rescue every single day. The rescue rep that I am working with… she works 60+ hours a week AND does dog rescue… in fact, she has 13 dogs at her house right now, most of whom are fosters. She is one of the heroes out there.
I am not continuing these posts on Gracie to receive recognition or praise for saving her. I’m doing it to a) personally document the process of how one dog went from being a stray to being part of a family again; and b) share her story with others that love hearing about positive outcomes for homeless dogs.
I am super grateful for every comment; but if you want to include cheers, only cheer for Gracie, not us! Right now I’m cheering the family that stepped up to foster!
Stay tuned if you want to follow her story. Hopefully my next post will be to say that she is doing great in her foster home or even better, has been adopted!
UPDATE: We had a minor setback. Read about it in Part 3½.
So happy that someone stepped up to foster her. Yay for Gracie! 🙂
She’s one step closer to finding her forever home.
I know! So, so glad that a foster stepped up. Now hopefully they don’t back out at the last minute, but I don’t think they will.
Hooray for a good update! Hope she does well at the foster home and then finds a furever home soon! I wonder where the poor kid was before??
I wish we knew. I posted a lot of “Found” ads, but I also combed and combed the Lost ads trying to find a lost listing matching her. I still look through them every day and will keep looking for a while. I really wanted to be able to reunite her with her original family, but it just seems a no-go. I will still keep my eyes out for a quite a while, though.
Yay yay yay to her being sponsored and fostered! There’s plenty of room for heroes of all sorts and what you’ve done has definitely saved a dog and you deserve to be praised! These days there are people that would abuse or kill her, kicking her away from their doorsteps. One dog at a time! ;0)
Yay indeed! And yes, you’re right… one dog at a time. We can’t save them all. But we can save THIS one. And yeah, I know what dangers she faced being loose on the streets, which is why we were even more determined to save her. Thank you for keeping up with the story!
What great news! Have to admit the thought of Gracie being boarded made me sad… so this is super happy news to me. Hoping that very, very soon you’ll be posting that Gracie has a perfect forever home 🙂
Yes, we really hate for her to be boarded too… and unfortunately she’s going to have be boarded for a little longer than we thought :(. The foster didn’t back out or anything… they’re still good to go, but there’s another issue and I will explain in my next post.
But you do deserve a pat on the back because you are doing something that many people would never do. Yes, we all are thankful for those that work in rescue, but even if you don’t normally work in rescue, you are saving a dog and that is what counts. Maybe she will get adopted today and not even need a foster home, paws crossed!
Thanks for the crossed paws! That would be pawsome if she didn’t even need a foster home! We are hoping someone falls for her right away!
Your story is on the way to “and Gracie lived happily ever after!” That is awesome that foster parents stepped up and will take her in.
Gracie, you’re a very lucky girl! We will be waiting to hear that you’ve found your forever home!!
Hugs,
Lily Belle & Muffin
We sure hope so! There’s been a minor setback that I will cover in my next post, but hopefully it’s just a wrinkle that will iron out quite easily. Every step is a step closer to her forever home.
Just reading all three posts today. I’m so glad she came to your doorstep and not someone who would have just ignored her. She is beautiful and sounds so sweet. I’m also glad she is dealing with the experience very well and not getting aggressive or being TOO shy. She seems like such an angel. I can’t believe she hasn’t found a home yet. The world needs more dog fosters – I’m so glad you finally found one for her! Maybe she will become a foster failure and they’ll just keep her. 🙂
Yes, she is handling the boarding experience as best as it can be handled. When we picked her up on Saturday morning to take her to her first adoption event , she was all wags and wiggles and was really happy to see us. The rescue rep said she did great at the showing and handled it well. She even had quite a bit of interest, but no adoptions apps just yet.
She has to stay another week in boarding 🙁 instead of going to her new foster parents this weekend, and I will cover why in my next post. A minor setback, but we’re still on track.
Yeah, the folks who are going to foster her seem really great. I secretly hope they do become foster failures ;).
I wish her lots of luck in find finding in new home! I can’t imagine it will take too long for somebody to fall in love with her.
We sure hope so. She had some interest on Saturday (her first adoption outing), but no apps just yet. She won’t get to go to her foster family until next Saturday, and I’m hoping that when she does… they will fall in love with her and keep her 😉 .