We all want to raise good humans, but figuring out how to do that can sometimes feel tricky. According to Parent’s Magazine, volunteering can not only boost empathy in children, it’s also been linked to higher grades, improved mental health, and can help raise their self esteem. While it’s easy to think about altruism around the holidays or after a natural disaster, my husband and I wanted to find a unique way to teach our kids to volunteer in an ongoing way.
Foster Dogs
After the sudden passing of one of our dogs, our hearts and home had a gaping hole. I began looking into fostering dogs and puppies, and found that it might be the perfect fit for our family. We love dogs, we’re home a lot, and we have a large yard. The foster organization typically provides all the supplies and food. We had a big discussion about what this would look like for us.
- Foster dogs would live with us short term. The main goal was helping get them acclimated to a family and finding them a good adoption fit.
- All family members needed to help out. Extra dogs meant extra feedings (especially for young puppies), cleaning up accidents around the house and tons of laundry. All hands on deck!
- We knew goodbyes would be sad, but we had lots of discussions about how every dog we save from the shelter is a life saved. Every time one of our fosters finds a home, it means one less dog in the shelter and one less euthanization (a tough conversation, but an unfortunate truth).
- We visited local shelters and participated in the Rescue Readers program at the Ventura County Animal Shelter in Camarillo (an amazing local program, if you haven’t checked them out yet!)
- We decided to pair with a rescue organization in Los Angeles that specializes in pregnant mamas, bottle babies, puppies under 8 weeks and medical rescues. These are exactly the type of dogs that a shelter simply can’t handle.
Around Thanksgiving of 2021, we got our first foster puppy, a 6 week old chihuahua mix named Janey. Since then, we’ve fostered 19 dogs, including 2 pregnant mamas who gave birth in our care. My kids have learned so much about canine gestation, newborn care, and the immense responsibility that comes with raising puppies. They help weigh the puppies daily to chart their growth and we use math to predict patterns. They measure gruel for the new eaters and make sure everyone is growing and getting their share. They help keep a calendar of physical developments, personality characteristics and the type of adopter they think would be best for each individual dog.
It’s a lot of amazing puppy snuggles, but it’s also the ultimate (hidden) mix of science, math, and heart. My kids are proud to tell you that they have helped save lives. Even though the goodbyes are painfully hard, we love getting updates on the pup’s new lives as they go off to help complete a family. We get to see them on holiday cards, text messages and social media. We keep in touch with the adopters whenever possible, and love seeing how far our foster love has spread.
And, a year ago, we had our first “foster fail”. A mama spaniel-mix who had 6 adorable babies that we raised until 8 weeks old. We realized we simply couldn’t let go of her once her babies were all adopted. I never intended to keep her, but she felt like a missing puzzle piece in our family.
As they say… who adopted who?
