Home, Sweet Home

Have you ever held a week-old puppy in your hand? It makes your heart swell with love. The puppy can't open its eyes yet and is small enough to fit in your palm. But as soon as you pick him up, he curls back up and goes to sleep. Why? He knows nothing other than unconditional love and trust.

Now, imagine if the puppy is left out in the cold or even intentionally hurt. Fortunately, shelters have drop boxes and take in these dogs. Rescues save dogs from shelters so they aren't euthanized due to space constrictions (which is a national epidemic).

This is where Beth and I (Nicole) come in. After rescues pull dogs from shelters, foster homes are needed for them until an adopter comes along to give them a forever home.

This blog is our way to show everyone how amazing these dogs are. We're going to put up pictures of current fosters, do follow ups when we do their home visits with their new families and highlight websites we use to help these amazing animals.

To give you a little background, Beth has been fostering and volunteering for a dog rescue for over a year. I started helping out after meeting her at work (we work together at an aviation non-profit). We volunteer with All 4 the Animals, a web-based rescue. Beth does a lot of administrative work, communicates with potential adopters, and jointly we do home visits for some of the dogs adopted out, foster dogs, do weekly laundry for the rescue, and help out where ever possible. I have Beth to thank for getting me involved with these amazing animals. You fall in love with each dog you come into contact with and its hard to imagine how horrible their life may have been before you met them. You learn that all you can do is love them and do everything possible to find them the best family.

Barb often refers to the house as "Heartbeat Hotel" in reference to there always being a foster around (hence where we got the name). There are already three dogs in the family: Cobia (Beth's first rescue), Joey and Waffles. All three are rescue dogs and while each has their own personality, they love us with everything they have. I couldn't imagine Beth's house without them. She is a wonderful mom to them and she's teaching me how to be a great aunt, until I am able to adopt a dog of my own. Each time we bring in a new foster (or set of fosters, like we currently have) Cobia, Joey, and Waffles accept them and help us teach love and living with a family.

Some of our past fosters include: Harley, Sprinkles, Sister, Blaze, Keegan, Keno, Minnow, Dash, Emma, Abby, Marigold, Waffles, Happy, Raven, and Guinness. Currently we have Lyra, Chubbs, and Maverick. While Beth and I have different favorites (Beth: Sister, Happy, Waffles. Nicole: Guinness, Marigold, Maverick) we love each and everyone we bring in. Soon, we hope to have up a slide show and pictures of everyone, plus current photos that we've gotten from their new families.

If at any time you have recommendations for us, comment and let us know. If you ever want to know about the rescue we volunteer with or sites we use to help us, just ask. And, most importantly, if you want to help these dogs find families to love them, we can point you in the right direction.

"We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. - M. Facklam

-N