It has been a while! Between being a mom to 5, working a lot and doing as much as we can for the dogs, I admit that the blog has fallen by the way side. I honestly could not even tell you how many or whom we have helped this year. I had brilliant intentions of keeping up, but it just didn't happen!
Some changes in our volunteering situation...this year, we found a rescue literally right around the corner, 1 minute from our house. It's not a big rescue and there are not many people in it so they need whatever help we can give them and it's VERY nice having them right around the corner! We are also randomly doing emergency short term foster for other areas as well as the occasional transport.
On a personal note, my oldest son has been accepted to early college (yay J!!!) and he has to acquire 150 volunteer hours before he can graduate with his associates degree in 5 years. My child TRULY love volunteering, anyway (well...the 12yr old needs a fire lit under him at times), but this will truly be a big help in acquiring those hours. We also hope to get his early college community involved so that our rescue will have even more volunteers.
So far, here are some of the animals that we have helped from Jan-July of this year...that I remember. Keeping in mind that between my kids and job, I have so many names and numbers running through my head, I *guarantee* that I have forgotten some!!! As well, some were only with us for a very short time so may not have had as much of an impact on us as those that were with us for longer. (Also, we got our own puppy this year and I took a small break during this time for his health and safety until he had several shots.)
And...gooooo...
Lily, Sandy, Annie, Molly, Bailey, Zach, Ben, Rue, Titus, Posy, Raggs, Midnight, Star, Bruno, Vita and her three pups (did not foster her pups, but did foster her)
Writing them down, it seems like we had a lot more in foster than this!
I have had many great firsts this year that I am proud to say that I was able to participate in, even if they may have been difficult at times. We picked up our first surrenders that we coordinated and picked up, a mom and three pups. All mom and pups are now in their new homes! We did several transports. We did our first connection and adoption! I learned to give shots (still not my favorite by far!). We did our first connection with breed specific rescue and did the transport for that which made us feel GREAT and he is now in his forever home!
Fostering and volunteering is not all glamorous, of course. There's poop, pee, sleepless nights, sickness, sadness and yes, sometimes, there is death. :-( I can say, after a year (wow! Has it really only been a year?!?!?) that the benefits of knowing that we are making a huge difference in these animals lives far surpasses the not so glamorous or sad things that make occur.
