Category: “Meet Our Pets”

Fostering vs. Adopting: Navigating the Path to Canine Companionship

Welcoming a furry friend into your home can be an immensely rewarding experience, not only for you but also for the four-legged companion who becomes a part of your family. When it comes to bringing a dog into your life, you have two main options: fostering and adopting. While both involve providing a loving home to a dog in need, they serve different purposes and come with unique considerations. In this blog post, we’ll explore the key differences between fostering and adopting a dog, helping you make an informed decision that aligns with your lifestyle and preferences.


Fostering a Dog: A Temporary Haven

Fostering a dog involves providing a temporary home for a dog in need, typically through a rescue organization or shelter. Fostering plays a crucial role in the rehabilitation and transition of dogs from shelters to forever homes. Here’s what you need to know about fostering:

  1. Temporary Commitment: Fostering is not a lifelong commitment. Fosters provide a safe and nurturing environment until a permanent home is found. This option is ideal for individuals who are unsure about long-term dog ownership or have temporary availability.
  2. Helping Dogs Transition: Many shelter dogs may have had difficult experiences in the past, making the transition to a home environment challenging. Fostering helps these dogs adjust to home life, potentially improving their chances of being adopted.
  3. Flexibility: Fostering allows you to experience dog companionship without permanent responsibilities. It’s an excellent way to assess if having a dog is the right fit for your lifestyle before committing to adoption.
  4. Emotional Investment: While fostering requires emotional investment, knowing that you’re helping a dog on its journey to a forever home can be incredibly fulfilling.

Adopting a Dog: A Lifelong Bond

Adopting a dog means bringing a dog into your home with the intention of providing a permanent, forever home. This choice comes with its own set of considerations:

  1. Long-Term Commitment: Adopting a dog is a lifetime commitment. Dogs thrive on stability and routine, and adopting ensures your furry friend has a forever home where they can grow, bond, and thrive.
  2. Personal Connection: The bond formed through adoption is profound. As you provide a loving home, the dog becomes an integral part of your family, enriching your life with companionship and unconditional love.
  3. Known Behavior: Adopting an adult dog may provide more insight into their behavior and personality compared to puppies. This can help you choose a dog whose traits align with your lifestyle.
  4. Potential Challenges: Adopted dogs might have experienced traumas or health issues that require patience, training, and sometimes financial commitment. However, overcoming these challenges can lead to a stronger bond.

Whether you choose to foster or adopt a dog, you’re making a significant positive impact on the lives of these loyal companions. Fostering provides a vital bridge for dogs seeking forever homes, while adoption offers a lifelong commitment that leads to a deep and lasting relationship. Your decision ultimately depends on your current circumstances, lifestyle, and personal preferences.

If you’re looking for a short-term commitment or want to test the waters of dog ownership, fostering might be the perfect fit. On the other hand, if you’re ready to open your heart and home to a furry friend for life, adoption could be the path to a companionship that’s as enduring as it is rewarding. Whichever path you choose, your decision to care for a dog in need is a noble and heartwarming choice that will undoubtedly enrich your life.


Ready to move forward? Click here to fill out a foster application and here for an adoption application.

Out Of The Darkness, Ben’s Rescue Story

Out Of The Darkness, Ben’s Rescue Story

Ben, a beautiful 1.5-year-old dog, was born into a world of darkness. From the moment he opened his eyes, he could not see the light, colors, or the faces of his mother and siblings. Despite his disability, Ben had a heart full of curiosity and love.

Ben as a 5 month old baby

But his innocence was shattered when he was taken away from his mother and sold to an abusive owner. For the first few months of his life, he was forced to live in a cramped, filthy cage, with no love or compassion. The only touch he felt was the harsh hands of his cruel owner, who hit him when he cried or barked.

As Ben grew older, his blindness made him even more vulnerable. He couldn’t see the obstacles in his path, the toys he wanted to play with, or the people he longed to be with. He was trapped in a world of darkness, loneliness, and fear.

One day, a kind-hearted person rescued Ben from his misery and brought him to our rescue. But despite the love and care he’s received, he still struggles with the trauma of his past. He flinches at sudden movements, cowers in fear at loud noises, and hesitates to trust anyone.

However, we won’t give up on him. We will continue to shower him with patience, understanding, and love. We are teaching him to navigate the world, using his other senses, and helping him overcome his fears. We will never give up on him, even when he has fits of frustration.

Ben is slowly beginning to trust again. He wags his tail at the sound of our voices, perk his ears up when we approach, and even nuzzles his nose into our hands.

Over time, Ben will blossom into a happy and confident dog. He will learned to run, play, and explore the world, using his nose, ears, and heart. He’ll wag his tail in delight when he feels the warmth of his family’s love, and his once-fearful heart will be filled with trust and joy.

Ben’s story is a testament to the power of resilience and love. It reminds us that, no matter how dark our world may seem, there is always a ray of hope that can lead us to a brighter future.

But we can’t do it without your help. Please sponsor a dog today and help us fulfill our mission to help dogs like Ben.

Cruz the Wonder Chi

Meet Cruz, our newest rescue. His pull request came to my inbox as urgent from a trusted networker. We saw his story and decided we needed to pull him since he is the type of dog we have great success with. In his shelter paperwork he is noted as fearful, hard to handle, possibly feral and an escape artist with a need to flee.

We pulled him Wednesday. Thursday he was socialized with our own personal dogs in one of our training rooms. It was uneventful. He didn’t want to interact with the dogs, he was a tiny bit interested in observing them and their interactions with me, but mostly he was searching for a way to escape.

Today was his first walk on a leash. The shelter notes said he was not able to be leashed so we knew even getting a leash on him was going to be progress. As usual, we decided that since getting the leash on was so easy and he didn’t seem too incredibly uncomfortable outside with us, we would add in some pack members.

We started our walk and most of the pack ignored him. He did not fight walking on the leash (probably because we used the look forward, move forward technique). We like to break our walks up into 2 sections. The first is everyone’s time to go potty and socialize, at about the halfway point, we always stop for pets and play and finally finish with a walk with some sort of purpose. This video was taken during half time. We are so proud of Cruz and his accomplishments in such a short amount of time!

Rosie’s Journey

Rosie’s Journey

It seems like a million years ago when we picked up a Yorkie mix mommie and her babies. That dark January night I had no idea that I would go on such a crazy journey with one of the tiny pups.

Rosie, one of six, was an energetic puppy and we noticed from the first time we held her how hard and fast her heart was beating. When the pups were about 8 weeks old we took them to be fixed and Rosie was adopted out a few days later. Her first vet visit with her new family revealed a heart murmur.Rosie06014

We took Rosie back out to our vet and the heart murmur was confirmed, an EKG was then ordered to determine the cause of the murmur. PDA was the diagnosis. Rosie was given a diagnosis that we had until her 1st birthday to get her surgery before any permanent heart damage would occur.

We promptly started a Go Fund Me page, www.GoFundMe.com/FixRosiesHeart and started beating the drums letting everyone we knew know about this sweet puppies medical needs. Unfortunately donations were slow to come in, and then Rosie had a couple of episodes where she was struggling to catch her breath. We rushed her to her new cardiologist and after an exam and additional EKG it was determined that she had less than a month before permanent damage to her heart would occur.

To say that I was wrecked is an understatement, all of my sharing, the sharing of our supporters and there was no way we were going to raise the funds to cover the surgery costs thinks were looking dismal, and then an 11 yr old boy that lived across the county from our rescue found out about Rosie’s plight. He went straight into action in his own community and started spreading the word about Rosie and her need for surgery. This young man set up a refreshment stand and asked for donations for Rosie as he happily handed out free cookies and lemonade to his neighbors. He also printed out flyers from Rosie’s GoFundMe page and posted them on all of the community mailboxes. Our rescue had no idea this was happening, we just started to see donations coming in on a regular basis. Finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

I had the opportunity to speak via email to the young man’s parents and tell them how amazing it was that he was going to save her life. It was Father’s Day and I had mentioned that I would love to surprise the young man by bringing Rosie over to meet him. I received a message back that said the local news team was on their way to do a piece on the story and his refreshment stand, so I grabbed Rosie, gave her a quick bath, and off we went to meet her HERO!

The interview was great and it seemed like Rosie knew who was working to save her right as soon as she got out of the car. She covered the boy’s face in kisses! The interview aired that evening and within 15 minutes of airing we had met our goal. We ended up going a little bit over our goal which was a blessing because Rosie’s surgery had complications and also went over it’s estimated cost.

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This Monday, July 13, little Rosie has her follow up appointment for her surgery. I’ve invited her new family, her HERO and his family to come to the appointment. This is truly the beginning of an exciting chapter for so many lives and the end of a journey that ended up touching the hearts of thousands of people. Thank you Dom Loco. <3

Meet Mugsy

Meet Mugsy

Little Mugsy is a favorite on the morning news! Check out his debut, he is a little ham and he was happy to share his personality with the news casters.

Mugsy is a funny little guy. He had a pretty big chip on his shoulder when he came into our rescue.  We’ve spent some time helping him understand how he fits into our pack and where his place is. He is coming around nicely and we are hoping to get him into his forever home soon!

Please consider adopting Mugsy if he seems like a good match for your family. View his Pet Profile.

Meet Dante

Meet Dante

Dante is Rosie’s brother. He is a Yorkie mix just without the scruffy fur. Dante has been a featured pet on SanDiego6.com’s Animal House and yet no one has adopted this sweet guy. He’s a wonderful dog that knows many of his basic obedience commands, gets along great with dogs, cats, kids and people,

See Dante’s Pet Profile And consider adding  this great addition to your active family.