I recently had to have the septic system replaced. This required taking down a section of “dog fence” in a part of the yard my dogs don’t normally have access to anyway. As the holidays approached, and I debated offering to foster a dog with a local shelter, I decided against it because a stressed dog might get into that section of unsecured yard.

The week before Christmas, the voice that lives in my head encouraged me to call a fellow I know and see if he could put the fence up. He was available and agreed to come out a few days later. All went well and I was so happy to know that my yard was secure again, but it was really too late to offer to foster.

That evening, I sent a funny video of a skateboarding Border Collie to a friend that runs an extraordinary rescue and training facility near Charlottesville, Green Dogs Unleashed. Her response was “will you take a respite foster for 10 days?” The next day, the Friday before Christmas, Adam arrived.

Adam is a 6 month old deaf Border Collie that was from a hoarding case in Texas. His foster mom, Mai, has been working with him for a few months. He is shy and prefers to not be touched. He is very wary of human interaction. Mai was headed out for the holidays and her original respite foster fell through. She brought Adam to my house and patiently helped me introduce my four dogs to him. His puppy exuberance was met with stern rebuffs by my more senior group, but he had the good grace to accept their boundaries. My gang had the good grace to take the arrival of a new dog in their grumpy stride.

Day one involved a lot of nervous pacing and sniff testing every item in the house. Night one started well as I left him in his crate, sound asleep when we headed to bed. Unfortunately he woke about 12:30AM to discover he was alone in the den, and he pitched a royal fit. After moving crates around and dragging a spare into my bedroom, he settled there. By night 2, he was sleeping on the bed, snuggled up to me!

Adam goes back to Mai tomorrow and I am already teary. In the old days, when I would give a dog in need a hand, there were very few caring organizations dedicated to shepherding these animals into new lives. If a dog came into my home, I committed to that new friend for their lifetime–generally ten to fifteen years. I am no longer in the position to make that sort of commitment.

Thankfully, times have changed. While I am sad to see Adam move along, I know that Green Dogs is going to carefully review potential adopters and he is going to find a home that can support him as he learns to face his challenges.

While he is a little kleptomaniac that steals all manner of items to take to his crate, while he is stubborn and untrusting, while he irritates the daylights out of the rest of my dogs with his endless energy, while he is resting one minute and off barking at who knows what the next, he is also smart, curious, tenacious, supportive, ever present-especially when food is involved, has an extraordinary sense of smell, and he is snuggly when his human sits down and spends time with him on his level.

Dogs are amazing, resilient partners. Irresponsible humans have created so much pain and suffering for the innocent. Thankfully there are those that work tirelessly to make a difference. They are true miracle workers. I invite you to support your local rescue groups in whatever why you are able – I promise that what you receive as a result of participating is far greater then what you give!