Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Animal Shelter

One of the girl's favorite places to go is the animal shelter. This shelter is not a sad place. It is a no kill shelter where the volunteers actually sit inside the dog's kennels and read to them. Seriously. It is a really nice place to visit. We usually go and buy a few cans of cat food or some dog food or something to donate. The kids ask to go there almost every day. We usually go at least twice a week. We are actually thinking of adopting another dog, which is what led us there originally, but I think we are going to foster first to make sure the dog will be a good fit with our family. We found a rescue group that goes down south and gets dogs from high kill shelters, moves them up here, and has foster families lined up to take care of the dogs until they find homes. I have always wanted to do that, so now we are going to. It is nice to be able to do something I have always been interested in. We have a wonderful dog and a cat already and they love the kids so much. It is so good for the girls to be around animals, I think it teaches them to be gentle and compassionate. The trick is going to be letting the foster dogs go when it is time.

3 comments:

Joanna said...

I really hate to point out what I think you already know. There is no fostering a dog when you have children. You bring it home, it's yours for life.

Still not a reason not to go for it.

DesiDVM said...

That's great! I'm always amazed by people who are able to let go of pets they have fostered. Just a warning...once you start fostering it's hard to stop LOL.

Maria said...

Joanna-
I agree with you, but my kids are really into helping others and we have posed it to them as we are helping a dog get out of a bad situation and getting it ready for a new family. They know that keeping it is an option, but they also know that the dog parade ends if we keep the first one. It's really me I have to worry about! LOL
Desi-
that's what I am afraid of!