Foster Volunteer Lee fills a special role for Canadian Chihuahua Rescue and Transport (CCRT), but what it is does not require any special skill. It merely takes a steady hand and a steady heart, and the empathy in your soul to know you are helping a dog in need.  Here is an excerpt from Lee’s story of palliative dog fostering, a role that CCRT calls permanent dog fostering.  Full article on Furever Network here >>  http://furever.ca/palliative-dog-fostering/

Permanent Dog Fostering

In my opinion, one of the most rewarding things a dog lover can do is become involved in dog fostering. To foster a dog means to promote that animal’s growth and development, to provide that dog with a loving home, temporarily, until the rescue team can place them in a furever home. I consider a foster home a place for a dog to recover. It may take days, weeks, months or even years.

How Palliative Dog Fostering Differs

Palliative dog fostering is based on the same principles of course, but it differs from regular dog fostering in some significant ways. When you open your door to a dog that is, either terminally ill, emotionally damaged or just too old and fragile to be re-homed, you are welcoming this dog into your home for the remainder of his or her life.

Lady Bug Esme and King Lucky Charm

CCRT took in these two senior chihuahuas knowing that they were going to become permanent fosters. When everyone else had given up on them, CCRT did not. And they were able to do that because volunteers, like me and there are others too, are in a position to offer palliative care dog fostering.

There is nothing more gratifying than knowing what I am doing for these two little munchkins. I am giving them what they never had before, a chance to be spoiled with a real family. I am giving them a permanent home.

To read the full article on Furever Network, please visit http://furever.ca/palliative-dog-fostering/

 – Text and Photography by Lee McWilliams

Read more about King Lucky Charm here 

Read more about Lady Bug Esme here

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