# A little overwhelmed by rescues



## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

I know those of you in breed specific rescues know that there are times where it's "slow" meaning that you've had the same handful of dogs and not many dogs needing to be brought in, and then there are other times where you are so overwhelmed by dogs in need that you wonder if it's going to be possible to help everyone. Boy have we been swamped lately. I just need to let it out.

We have only 7 dog runs in our kennel, plus one emergency run. Right now we have 6 in our kennels (having just replaced two that were adopted last weekend). 

We also have several foster homes, though not as many as we would like (who does?). So we try to reserve those spots for our special needs dogs. Right now we have 6 in foster, two that are heartworm positive undergoing treatment, one senior, one pup, and one that just came in where the shelter REMOVED HIS TAIL! because he was going to a colder environment and they didn't want him to get frostbite. :doh:

Well, we've got 2 more coming in heartworm positive, 1 with a severe case of mange, 1 senior who was adopted out by us 9 years ago and the owners dumped him at a shelter (thank goodness for microchipping), plus another 3 that we don't know anything about. 

That's a total of 19 dogs. 6 currently in foster, 6 in the kennel is 12. At least 4 of those coming in NEED foster homes (the heartworm positive dogs, the senior, and the dog with mange), which leaves 2 that can squeeze into the kennel, and 1 left over dog that will need to find a place to stay. 

Since most of our regular foster parents already have dogs, we only have 1 person volunteering to foster (other than me, but everyone keeps telling me know because of how far reggers: I am). You would think it wouldn't be this difficult to find 5 people to help out, especially when you have hundreds of previous adopters. Heck, 4 of our current fosters have never adopted a dog from us, they are just amazing people helping out. You would think that those who have successfully adopted a dog from us would be interested in showing their appreciation.

I know that not everyone's situation is ideal for fosters, but some of these guys we just need to find a place to stay for a bit so they don't get PTS. If they could just hold on to them for a few weeks, and hope that we get lucky with people applying to adopt, we could probably bring them back into the kennel if its an issue...

*sigh* just needed to let that out...fingers crossed that we don't have to cut the line for any of these dogs needing to come in.


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## brandiw (Jan 20, 2010)

I understand! I volunteer with an all-breed rescue and we take both cats and dogs, so we are always overwhelmed and there is always one (or more) that we just can't help. It is heartbreaking. I have taken a break from fostering for the last six months or so, but am thinking of jumping back in. Unfortunately, our group is small, and many long-time members have burned out, so our foster homes have dwindled. It is hard to get people to foster; I think many people just think that they won't be able to give them up when the time comes for adoption. It is hard to be a foster home sometimes. Good luck finding a place for all who need one!


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

Well we've been lucky and two people have volunteered, one has fostered before so we know they will work, but in the mean time another stray pup has been called in so we need yet another foster.  I'm hoping it all works out, it's still too soon to know, but it looks like they are going to allow me to take in one of the heartworm positive dogs if we can't find anyone.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

aaaannnnddd theres more! since this, we've had to juggle for 4 more adults and 2 of our previously adopted puppies (they're about 7 months now) are now coming back to us because the lady is "at the end of her rope" 

*sigh* it's going to be a full house here. I'm taking one of the pups because I fostered her previously, plus the heartworm positive girl is coming to stay in my garage for her treatment.

You can make your application requirements so strict and still have people fall through the cracks. I just wish she would have contacted us earlier...her pups don't look like malamutes at all (mom was definitely a malamute), so it's going to be hard for our rescue to find people for them. Plus they seem to be developing really sensitive tummies (the whole litter), and who's going to want to adopt a dog who's going to have tummy problems for the rest of their 10-15 years of life?  Poor things have been through so much.


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## JustTess (Mar 19, 2008)

I wish I could foster more..... but fostering is so hard for me. I start to see how each one of them has their own special quirk about them and I don't want to give one up.

It's crazy where I live as the husky group here seems overloaded with fosters. There just isn't more room until more get adopted. I just saw the shelter i got George from has 4 more huskies this week and they only have about 2 weeks max to get adopted. On Craigslist, it seems like college kids are soon realizing it's too much for them at the moment to care for their new husky and ends up trying to rehome them.


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## GottaLuvMutts (Jun 1, 2009)

Just wanted to say thanks for doing what you do.

As someone who rescued a dog, I'd love to do more to help other dogs in need of homes, but unfortunately my situation doesn't allow it right now. I live in a rental house, and the fence is marginal at best and wouldn't do anything to contain a dog that actually wanted out. And I work outside of the home 8hrs/day, so the dog would be alone a lot. I've thought about joining a BC rescue organization and fostering once in a while after I become more stable (i.e. have my own place), but I would definitely be a "one-at-a-time" kinda foster home even then.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

yeah, the sled dogs really are everywhere....people see those movies and think how cute they are, but they are not the easiest breed to deal with...especially for _most_ first-timers. I won't look at craigslist anymore. I hate seeing them all. We're lucky that there are three great rescues in this general area: Us (the malamute rescue), Free Spirt (huskies), and Northern Lights Sled Dog rescue (mals and huskies). So between the 3 of us, we can usually pull the ones in need. But lately it's just been crazy...plus there was that huge bust in Alaska....we haven't had much to do with it yet, but I'm sure that we'll see something from it sooner or later since we are pretty much the biggest malamute rescue in the US.

I just wish that there were less dogs being given up...and the fact that these two pups are coming back to us is really upsetting. We had hundreds of applications, and they were one of the "good" ones....*sigh*


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