Foster dogs you wish you'd kept?

Every time Matt and I talk about our past foster dogs we end up saying "****, I wish we'd kept Popeye." And I really do - but if we'd kept him we wouldn't have Tipper. It's hard to look back and say that and remember how him and Mu got along (they'd play and play and snuggle and then play some more), especially considering the issues we're having now. He went to a fantastic home but I think we'll always consider him the one that got away.



(For the record - I don't regret getting Tipper for a second - she is the crazy dog I never knew I needed. )

So - what fosters do you wish you'd kept or what random dog do you wish you'd taken home from an adoption event/petfinder/whatever? Pictures are greatly encouraged.

Do I really wish I kept Edna?
I don't think so. She would have been too much for me to handle at this point (although maybe if I kept her, my life wouldn't have gotten so out-of-control ).

But I miss her, every single day. And I still cry sometimes because she's gone. I'm sure she's happy, out of the city and getting along with her brother, with a big yard to play in. I know it wouldn't have been fair to keep her when I work so much, and stuff, and I think it will help when I get another foster dog, she was the last one before I started a new job and am unable to keep a dog with me. I do miss her, but combined with just generally missing having a dog, it's even worse.

I love this picture of her and I snuggling on my bed:

Not a foster dog (though I do miss Merlin) but I miss Cargo. Cargo was a dog that I bred that got sold to a crazy lady. Of course at the time I didn't know she was crazy. I got him back and he was sooo awesome. He now has a fantastic home, but there are days when I wish I had kept him. He was crazy drivey and talented, fast happy and all around one of the best JRT dog sport prospects I have ever met.

But then I look at the dogs I have and am sad that I dont' have the time or money to do as much as I would like with the dogs I have.

I've kept a lot of fosters actually, but I know my dad wishes we had kept one of my first: Cecil. Cecil was a cattle dog/beagle cross I fostered for the local shelter between senior year of high school and freshman year of college. He ended up being donated to a service dog organization, but was released to a pet home because he liked dogs too much! He was an awesome little dog!

I wish we had kept Levi. At the time we had Blackie, Rose, and Chloe (although Blackie was in his last year) and adding a fourth dog may have been a little much...but he was *such* a good dog. So good, in fact, that when he was being transported to Illinois to go to his new foster home with GBAR he never even made it - the transporters fell in love with him and applied to adopt him that very same day. LOL



All of the others I've felt really good about placing, even though I do miss them at times, especially Kiba and Dexter. Levi is the one I wished we'd kept.

And not technically a "foster" in the traditional sense, but I really, really, really wished that Sadie wasn't able to pass her training and could have been adopted out to us. She was such a brilliant dog and I miss her to pieces still, almost six years later. But of course, it was because she was so brilliant that she is making someone a fantastic guide dog.

Even though it's been for the best, there are a number of times that I wish I had been able to keep Virgo.

DSC_0023 by Stephanie Owen/CrazyDog Photography, on Flickr

does it count that I wanted to keep Virgo too?

The havanese we fostered a couple years ago. We called him mr.fluffy.

I could not justify it since he was such an adoptable dog and it was so easy to find him a home. My beagle ginger was also going through all her surgeries for her tumor removal then. But he was such a sweet dog and we all loved him. He would follow us all around and would just lay on you and sleep. I really wanted a small dog and I could have kept him but I didn't.

She's in her perfect home now, but not a day goes by when I don't think about and dearly miss Wink. Out of all my fosters, I had the strongest connection with her by far.

Zaphod was quite special as well. Most of the newer members probably would not remember him, but he was a very large, abused mixed breed that I pulled from a kill shelter in '08. He was a bit fearful and lashed out a lot when I first got him, and he had some horrifying scars from some previous injury that I think deterred people from adopting him.

When he grew into himself a bit and found his confidence, it became apparent that he and Eve were not ever going to coexist nicely. He was nearly impossible to place, but his angel came for him just days before I had to leave the US and move to Mexico. Happy ending for my good boy.

When I first got him, all skinny and pathetic.



One of the scars on him.



After gaining some weight, muscle and confidence:

Also not a dog, but a special foster nonetheless - Max Power. I got him when he was barely a day old, and I truly was convinced he was going to die, and there were a couple of nights where I had set out a little shoebox prepared as a coffin for him.

Turned out that he lived, and he turned into the fattest, sassiest kitten I've ever seen. I couldn't keep another cat, and he's in his forever home now.

RD, I actually didn't know what happened to Zaphod. I remember you fostering him, but I missed where he had gone....I sort of thought he stayed with your parents when you moved to Mexico. I'm glad he found a good home

I remember Zaph I'm glad he's doing well!

Smkie, it does count. If I had been in a different position, between the two of us, we could have turned her into an even greater dog. I just couldn't keep up with the expenses she was incurring.

Oh my...Zaphod is stunning. Kudos to you for taking him in and working with him.

@Milo's - Zaphod was adopted by one of my mom's co-workers. He has a female GSD and young boys to play with. It was really lucky for him the way things worked out, because I had fostered him for the better part of a year with not a single person interested. When my parents sold their house (I was living with them at the time) it was a 4-day escrow and there was no way I could take Z to Mexico with us. We had everything we owned crammed into 3 vehicles and there was barely any room for the teensy border collies, much less a massive, exuberant dog like Zaphod. On our third day of frantic packing, my mom's coworker said she wanted Z. Turned out to be a perfect fit at the perfect time.

I never realized I hadn't updated Chaz on him. I took a huge hiatus from forums after moving out of the country, but I thought I had at least made it known that he was adopted.

I haven't recieved pictures of him in a few years but as far as I know, he's still happy in his home!

I kind of know what you mean about Virgo, after having Wink. There really is no way in hell I could've afforded that dog long-term.

I don't want to add up the costs of the damage that she caused, because I know it will wind up being well into the thousands. She was simply the most aggressive chewer I've ever seen, and she reminded me of Virgo in her unbreakable determination to get to food.

I wish I could have kept Sonja. She was my very first foster. She ended up being with me for 8 months (she had kidney disease and was HW+) Sonja ended up being adopted by the nicest family I could have ever asked for. She was so happy with them which in turn made me happy too. To this day I am still friends with them even though Sonja passed not too long ago. We are so close that I was asked to be there on her last day too. I couldn't have asked for a better family for Sonja.







Diesel. Man was this pup hard to let go. If he wasn't already spoken for before I fostered him for a short while; there would be no way I would have let him go. He had a hard start in life (abused and starved), and it was the look and sparkle in his eyes that made me love him so dearly. He knew he was safe and no one was going to hurt him anymore. He is in a perfect home now with other dogs to keep him company, but he is the one that got away. I promised myself that I wouldn't let that happen again, lol, hence Timber

Awwww I love all the stories and the pictures.

RD - I meant to put up that it doesn't have to be a dog, sorry! And Zaphod was super handsome (and a credit to his namesake I'm sure )

I'm glad that Zaphod got adopted as well! I remember reading that super long thread about him and his progress!

As for my fosters, I don't think there are any that I actually wish I'd kept, but I'll show you a few of my favorites.

Sassy


I fostered Sassy back when I had our old dog, Belle (before I joined chaz). If I'm not mistaken, she was my second foster ever. She was an interesting little dog and she made more growly noises than any other dog I've encountered. I don't think that she was always upset when she would "talk," but rather I think she just enjoyed hearing herself and voicing her opinion on everything! She was an obese, food obsessed, ditzy little dog (didn't like the dark, or rain, and god forbid she ever got her feet wet), but she was super easy to live with and just a sweet little dog.

Lindy


Lindy's an interesting one because she was actually my only foster between Belle's passing and our family adopting Boo. We were starting to look for adoptable dogs when Lindy showed up at one of the adoption events with the group that I used to volunteer for. She was one of the shelter dogs on death row that would've gone back to the shelter to be put down had she not been adopted or fostered out through the rescue. I wasn't planning to take on any new fosters during that time, but I couldn't send her back to die. She was seven years old and just an amazing dog. I think I would have kept her had I not received two interest emails from potential adopters that week. One of them became her new family. She was low-key yet playful and just a sweet, sweet dog.

Evan (Kobe)


Kobe, as I'm sure many of you remember, was my little mystery mutt puppy from this summer. I had him longer than any of my other foster puppies, which may have attributed something to how much I liked him, but he was just generally a good puppy. The little snot woke me up at 5 every morning, but otherwise seemed quite "mature" for a puppy his age. I used to take him and Boo to Starbucks in the mornings and they would both lie underneath my chair and watch the world go by. Whereas most puppies would've been bouncing around at each and every person they saw, Kobe was happy to sit and watch unless they called him over to them. At that point, he'd go into typical "wiggly puppy mode." He was just a real sweetie.

There's a part of me that wishes I had kept Grimm. He was such a neat dog, and, even though he's in a great home where he's deeply loved, I loved him, too.
But if I had kept Grimm, I would never have gotten Gambit, who is the dog I was meant to have, despite his...flaws and neurosis.

Abby. She wasn't an official foster, since I didn't do this for any group, I just made some days happier for a dog who was living in a cage at a grooming place I used to work at. We couldn't keep her because my parents didn't want three dogs (we had Daisy and Coco the Chessie at the time). Abby was an awesome dog though. So smart, she could climb fences, but she never ran away. When we put her in the back yard, she climbed the chain link fence, and came around to the side door, and we saw her ears sticking up in the window like "hey, let me back in!!" lol


I still miss Benny, my foster kitten. I know he's in a really great home though. (For those who don't know the story, my roomie Brandy, back when we were both working at FOHA, took a dog to the vet and met a woman there who had found this little kitten and didn't know what to do with it, so Brandy brought it back to FOHA and I agreed to foster it until an actual foster home was found).


And of course, I will always miss Opie. He wasn't a foster (heck, if he'd come into my home, he would have never left) but he was MY DOG while he was at FOHA. He's the one that got away, I suppose. Chazzers that have been here more than a year should remember him.