LIFE

Fostering pets a fun, rewarding experience for many

Emily Maddern
emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

Kristie Massa is one of many people who refers to herself as a "foster failure."

Not because she failed to care for the furry friends visiting her, but because a few ended up staying with her permanently rather than moving on to their new homes.

But Massa has no regrets about her failures — yes plural — because it's brought two wonderful dogs into her life that, at this point, she can't imagine not being part of her family.

"We currently have five dogs, so we've foster failed twice. People are always like, 'How many dogs do you have now?' I think I've officially hit the crazy dog lady status," Massa said with a laugh. "I just love dogs."

That love of dogs is what inspired Massa to become a foster. She started by contacting her local dog pound in Mansfield, and after going through an application process and a home visit, she was ready to take in her first foster.

Since then she has fostered six dogs, adopting two of them herself. The experience has been incredibly rewarding, Massa said, but not without its challenges.

Fostering pets involves some big commitments and responsibilities. Two of the dogs that came to her home had special needs and another was heartworm positive, meaning they required some specialized care.

In many cases there are some behavioral issues in the first few weeks, whether it's because the dog or cat is still young or because they have been mistreated in the past.

"Don't expect them to come to your house and sleep through the night and potty outside. It could take weeks," Massa said. "You have to have patience and understanding, and to go in knowing it's going to take some work. But really it just takes love and a kind heart and a passion for dogs. If you have a true love with for dogs, you can be a foster."

In the case of Macho, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a little understanding was all he needed. Jenn Thomas, of Chillicothe, was volunteering at the Ross County Humane Society when she first met Macho. She was not a fan.

All he seemed to want to do was jump in her face and bite at her. He was terrible on a leash and resembled a Tasmanian devil more than a dog, Thomas said. She quickly labeled him crazy and stupid and decided she wanted nothing to do with him.

So every time she visited the shelter, she chose other dogs to work with, leaving Macho in his kennel. In a twist of events, Thomas ended up bringing Macho home to foster after the shelter filled up and no rescue groups were available to take him.

Over the next few days, she started to see Macho in a new light. He liked treats and would behave to snag one. He played well with Thomas' other dog. And then he even jumped up on the couch to cuddle with her after a long day.

"Something in you changed that moment or maybe it was me but I realized that you were a good dog. You just needed the right environment," Thomas wrote in a blog post about Macho.

Placements for Macho fell through, and Thomas couldn't deny that she was falling in love with him, so she decided to make things permanent and adopt him around Christmas last year.

Macho still has his moments, but Thomas is committed.

"He is still a challenge. He walks on leash like a beast and last week he and my husky ate my seat belts in my car while I waited for their daycare shuttle to pick them up," she said in an email. "It takes a lot of patience. There are those dogs that just really will take a special person to keep them for life. I don't know if it's compassion or stupidity, but Macho would have a hard time fitting into a 'normal' family. I feel like he is lucky we found him and we are lucky to have him."

Kris Cartwright, of Newark, spent her first day fostering delivering 10 puppies. The Licking County Animal Society called Cartwright at noon on a Friday desperately searching for someone to take the pregnant dog in; her owner, who had kept the dog outside, surrendered her in December 2013 as temperatures were heading into the subzero range.

By 8 p.m. that night the puppies began arriving. Cartwright and her family ended up keeping two of the puppies, joining the foster failure club. They have since fostered nearly 30 animals, both dogs and cats, and hope to help more soon.

"I always wanted to do it but I didn't have time before I retired," Kris said. "I started volunteering and just got more and more involved in it. It's really nice because you're really helping the animals. I'd bring them all home if I could."

Kris and David know where every single one of the puppies from their first foster went, and they get together with the families to have play dates with all of the dogs when they can. It's rewarding, Kris said, to see all of those dogs go to wonderful families who can love and care for them.

She would 100 percent recommend fostering to others, she said, as long as they know what they are getting into. There is a lot to consider: the age of the animal, its exercise needs, what type of breed it is, whether it is social with other pets needs to be the only one in the house.

Cartwright has taken kittens at such an early age that they needed bottle fed, so there's many factors that go into whether someone has the time and skills to be a great foster parent.

Time and patience are definitely at the top of the list, she said, but she and her husband said there's another important factor: Being able to say goodbye. The Cartwrights have had their share of difficult goodbyes, said David, Kris's husband.

"You've got to be prepared to give them up at any time, but you also have to be prepared to keep them for a while if they can't find a permanent home," he said. "It can be hard, but it's best off for them to go to their permanent homes as soon as possible, so you just have to tell yourself that."

One of the reasons it took Gabby Carr, of Butler, so long to become a foster was the fear of getting too attached to the animals.

Eventually she realized it was worth the risk, and she signed up to foster a cat and her four kittens from the Richland County Humane Society. It turned out to be one of the best decisions she's ever made, she said.

"I gave them the opportunity to be in a warm, cozy, loving home. When you also foster an animal, it creates more space to take in more animals who need help," she said in an email, referring to animal shelters. "That is why fostering is so rewarding, you save not only the animal you're fostering, but you also save a possible neglected, starving, freezing animal on the streets or an animal that was totally abused and neglected by the owner."

"It gives the animal on the street an opportunity to make it because you fostered that one animal," she said. "That's what I want people to look at, not the fear because the fear of loving an animal too much and wanting to keep it is way less then giving them a warm home with great opportunities that you as a foster can give them."

emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8513

Twitter: @emmaddern