Diary of a Foster Carer – Part 3

In Bek’s latest instalment, Jasper finds his ‘forever home’…

Apparently we weren’t the only ones who appreciated how beautiful Jasper was.
A few days ago, when his picture began being advertised on petrescue.com.au, we were inundated with phone calls about the sweet little blue-eyed Staffy.

I’d thought I’d be so thrilled to initiate Jasper’s re-homing and the feeling of goodwill it would inspire. I didn’t expect the feeling of protectiveness and sadness I’d experience when the time came to give him up.

A lovely couple with another dog Jasper’s age came to visit him, and he melted their hearts as quickly and completely as he’d melted ours. The couple decided to take him then and there – and before we really had a chance to process it, Jasper was out the door, off to his new home with a huge backyard and doggie playmate. It was the best outcome possible.

Still, I cried for two hours to see him go.

Good news, sad news
A quick call to Nora (the lady who’d organised Jasper’s rescue from the pound) helped me see the situation more clearly. She said she could hear in my voice that I hadn’t wanted to let him go, but that there were hundreds of dogs dying every day and the more homes we found them, the more we could help. By the sounds of it, she’d had the same experience with more than one first-time foster parent, and was very understanding.

There’s always a three-day cooling-off period during which the old foster parents are on standby in case the dog doesn’t take to his new home for whatever reason. For the last few days, we’d been anxiously waiting to hear how Jasper was getting on. Yesterday, the call came that, as we’d expected, he was already part of the family.

In the time it has taken to write this post, another email has come through. It’s from Nora. There’s a Staffy-Foxy-cross called Archie at a nearby pound who is due to be put to sleep tomorrow morning unless she can find him a foster home…

I guess I’m driving out to the pound this afternoon!

Stay tuned…

• If you’d like to become involved with fostering dogs and live around the Sydney area, Nora’s organisation is called NO KILL pet rescue. You can find more information about it and other rescue organisations around Australia by visiting www.petrescue.com.au and clicking on the ‘volunteer’ tab.

Images by Scott MacLeod Liddle and ruthless photos