Gracie- Our House Guest

Today Dominic and I became foster parents to the most wonderful black lab mix from Maxfund, named Gracie. She is loving, kind, sweet, obedient, walks perfectly on a leash, loves belly rubs, is great in the car, enjoys playing with Senior Ding-Dong, gives the most precious kisses, and is simply an all around love bug. According to the wonderful staff at Maxfund, she just doesn't so much care for cats, and her last owner discovered this the hard way after she killed the family cat. It is hard to imagine that she could even harm a fly, but that incident brought her back to Maxfund for the second time. She had been very sad about this transition and that is how she became a foster candidate.

I have now been volunteering at Maxfund for a little over a year, and I absolutely love it. We decided that it was time that we find a playmate for Ding-Dong and the perfect way to do that would be to foster a doggie. Maxfund is a no-kill shelter; any dog that comes to Maxfund has a place there until they find their forever home. But, if all the runs are full they are forced to say no to dogs that really deserve a second chance. Maxfund often takes dogs from high-kill shelters to save them from euthanasia. But, fostering doesn't just help free up a little extra space at the shelter it also helps dogs during transition from the shelter to their forever home.

At the shelter it is loud, scary, and very intimidating to dogs. Dogs that come in from family turnovers often lose their spunk, and their true personality, merely because of the shelter conditions. This makes it hard to impress their potential adopters. At a foster home they get all the benefits of a loved dog: a warm house, a family to walk them, someone to rub their belly, and they are able to maintain, or even gain, good behaviors.

Gracie was certainly depressed at the shelter, and even after one day at our house I have seen the light in her eyes change. Today she got to play as much as she wanted, sleep in a warm and quiet house, get a nice relaxing bath and a good brushing, learn what doggie doors are all about (However, the doggie door is still a bit intimidating to her, but we will keep working on it.), run in the grass, and get not one, but two car rides. I assume it is just a matter of time before this 70 pound girl finds her forever home, but until then she will certainly be a nice addition in our lives.

Ultimately what Gracie needs is a loving home and a good family. If you are interested in adopting Gracie please don't hesitate to contact me or Maxfund. Her bio is linked to her name at the beginning of this post.