Foster Family Once Again

So back in the young days of our marriage we adopted a puppy. We then wanted to adopt another puppy but weren't sure we were ready for that so we opened our home to foster through the organization  we rescued our puppy Layla from. We had 3 fosters through this organization and then ultimately decided on adopting a 3rd permament member when we met our Bentley.

After Bentley passed and we moved into our new home (post to come soon about our new home, it's been a whirlwind of God opening doors for us the past 2 months) we decided we could probably foster again because we have more room and we don't want a 3rd permament doggy friend but we knew we wanted to help again.

So in comes facebook and Aly if you know her from the blogsphere she loves her labs that she rescued through Love of Labs Indiana. I became friends with them on facebook and they had a request for foster homes for 3 dogs that were coming from a puppy mill in Illinois. 2 males, one was 5 years old and one was 2 years old and a female who was 7. We emailed offering to be a foster home for one of these babies and sure enough the next day I got an email asking us if we were in.

So I went to pick up our foster 2 Sundays ago at a gas station off the interstate not far from our house. These sweet dogs were so smelly and so scared. We took in the 5 year old male pure bred yellow lab. You could tell he had not ever been in a house because our house scared him, he would barely walk on a leash he kept freezing up, he wasn't sure about the grass and he had an obvious ear infection going on.



He has now been with us for 2 weeks and he is making strides! He comes into our home every night for a few hours to learn what it's like to be in a family home environment (we have to help him with the stairs which is why we only do this one time a day) and he stays in his crate in our walk out basement during the day because he will walk in and out that way. He walks ok on a leash but still freezes up at times. However he walks right beside us out to the pen every day to go outside. He loves our daughter and wags his tail when he hears her voice, he lets her hug him and yesterday she piled a jean jacket, a cell phone and a baby toy on his back and he did nothing, she used him as a tunnel and he stood there basking in the attention.

We are waiting to find out the treatment plan for his ear infection next week and then he will most likely be listed for adoption after that. I know he will make someone a fantastic family member if they give him the chance to warm up. He is so sweet and happy when he is with us and so calm and loving with the kids.

I hope by us welcoming these broken animals into our home and watching them recover and learn to trust humans and be a happy member of the family we are starting to plant that seed in our kids hearts to help others to love the broken and scared. A lot that we learn from our pets and our animals can be carried out into how we treat others. These innocent dogs didn't asked to be kept in a pen and bread litter after litter of puppies and have their health ignored but they were stuck and we can only love them and hope they learn to trust again.

By the way his name is Lloyd, isn't that a fantastic name :) Lydia calles him Woyd!