I am an avid dog-lover. I grew up with a family dog my entire life and sorely miss my dog while I am at school. So you can imagine how often I find myself wishing that I had my dog, or any dog for that matter, with me at school to cuddle and play with. Unfortunately I am not ready to take on the full responsibility of adopting a dog, nor could I manage it financially.

However, last night I discovered that you can foster a dog for a short time from a local shelter! The goal of this fostering process is to help the dogs who live at the shelter adjust to living with people and socializing with other animals. Some of the animals at the shelter have some issues from past abuse or mistreatment and need help readjusting before they can be fully adopted into a loving family. This is the part where I come in 🙂

My roommates and I are looking into fostering a dog together. Most of the dogs are already fixed and have their shots which takes care of a lot of the financial burden. The dog would come live with us and we would take care of it for a short time while it adjusts to life outside of the shelter or until a family contacts the shelter wanting to fully adopt the dog.

While this whole process is somewhat ideal for a college student there are a few hurdles to consider. My roommates and I would need to combine our schedules and make sure that between the four of us we would not be away from the apartment for long spans of time. We would also need to consider the size of the dog in relation to the size of our apartment and make sure that the dog wouldn’t feel too cooped up in our smaller apartment. We are also concerned about the dog’s mental health and what moving around from the shelter, to our home, back to the shelter, and then hopefully to a permeant home would do to the dog. And finally we would need to be mentally prepared to give up the dog when our period of fostering is over. This last one might be the hardest.

The more I talk about the possibility of fostering a dog from the shelter, the higher my hopes get. My roommates and I definitely have a process ahead of us to get through before we actually have a dog in our home. But it sure would be worth it.