One of the craziest and most rewarding things I've ever gotten involved in has been dog rescue. It all started when my sister in law sent me a message asking if I knew of anyone who had purebred Australian Cattle Dog puppies for sale. My sister in law and I share a love of heelers, so I quickly started searching online! The first listing was for Texas Cattle Dog Rescue on Facebook. I clicked Like and started lurking on the page for about a week. I looked over their website and imagined what it would be like to be a foster home for rescued cattle dogs.
I know that I probably procrastinated for a week before I sent in my application as a foster, because that's just what I do! Then I didn't hear a word and figured that they ran a background check on me and said NO WAY JOSE!! I don't know why, but I always have a guilty conscience about such things!
Finally one evening after work, I got a phone call from the Foster Coordinator; a very nice guy who basically chatted with me for about thirty minutes about his own dogs and what I would need to know about fostering. I did not hear from him for another week, so in my newfound searches of all things cattle dogs/heelers, I found that there was a barely red male in a Texas shelter who had a freaked out expression on his face. I knew this guy would be put to sleep any day--he just did not look like he was going to be okay for long in that shelter. So I texted my new rescue friend and said, "Hey, I want to pull this dog. I want to adopt him but I don't know what to do. Can you help me?" And the rest is history!
The first year I fostered for TCDR, I probably fostered about 8 dogs. I found that I enjoyed meeting with potential adopters and sharing with them what I had discovered about my foster dog. I did a lot of driving because I felt weird having people drive all the way to my house which is in the middle of nowhere.
Each year that I have worked with TCDR has been a true blessing in my life! I have awesome rescue friends that I never would have met anywhere else! I have cried some tears over my foster dogs, both when letting them go and also when tragically, I had to take one to be put to sleep. I am now involved with TCDR as the Foster Coordinator. I am also on the Board of Directors and I am active in working on the newsletter and Field Day events.
My family doesn't always understand why on earth I would volunteer so much time and effort into rescuing dogs. But just being able to see that dog get a great forever home is worth all of the driving, all of the late night emails, all of the Facebook posts... It is truly one thing I know God created me for! Sometimes I get overwhelmed. I often overcommit myself. But all it takes is to get a message or an email about a dog in need and I'm right back into full speed rescue mode!
I'm a crazy dog lady. And it's an awesome adventure!!!
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