Puppies, Puppies, Puppies!

On Feb 23rd, 2012 we became fosters for Stray Rescue of St. Louis! A few years ago John and I met Randy Grim, the founder of Stray Rescue, at a holiday party of St. Louis Blues player Barret Jackman and his wife Jenny (my husband and I went to highschool with her, yay P South). We got to know Randy over several shot-ski's and discovered what a fun, sweet man he is and SO passionate about rescuing stray dogs. Immediately, I wanted to join the cause and help however I could, but it wouldn't be until 2012 that we finally moved out of our tiny condo and into a home large enough that we could finally foster!

Ps this is a shot-ski if you aren't familiar (that's me in the middle shot-skiing like a champ)

Anywho, back to fostering, we decided we had the time and space to help so we applied to become fosters and just a week later we were taking home our first two puppies from Stray Rescue's Pine Street shelter. We were so nervous and excited. Two puppies at the same time?? Plus Bauer and our two kitties Poopie and Charlie? Could we actually do this? Through Stray Rescue's foster group page on Facebook I could see that many people have even more dogs/cats/kids at home and were fostering successfully. What a comfort! If they could do it, surely we could too!

Enter Pika and Bilby!

What a fun, stressful, happy, time-consuming, heart-warming adventure it has been! Me, John and Bauer fell in love with the puppies instantly and we knew right away how hard eventually letting them go would be. But darn it if it doesn't feel good helping a cause that we believe in! I can sum up the experience like this: lots of baby gates, puppy breath, potty breaks, and puppy kisses. We had so much fun with these two guys that I'm so surprised more people don't foster. A lot of people say "I could never do that because I would become too attached and would want to keep the dog". I can't disagree with that but truly caring means finding a loving home for the dog and making room to help out another dog in need. There were many tears shed after each puppy was dropped off at their new homes but there were smiles through the tears as well! Pika and Bilby are both in great homes now and I get updates all the time about how they are doing.  It turned out to be such a wonderful experience that I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship with Stray Rescue as a foster parent. 

Stray Rescue is currently overloaded with dogs and a spring explosion of puppies and in desperate need of new fosters. If you, or anyone you know, would be interested please get in touch.  And if fostering is not for you think about adopting!! So many wonderful dogs and puppies just waiting for the right family to come along and rescue them.

http://www.strayrescue.org/ 

Hope everyone is having an amazing spring!!

Love,

Tina