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by Tamar Love Grande
Foster parents bridge the gap between a rescue dachshund’s former and forever homes, allowing him to live in a safe and loving environment, which many rescued dachshunds have never known. Fosters can also help you decide if you want to adopt a particular dachshund—“rent” to own!
Because we often form the same deep bonds with our foster babies as we do with our own dogs, the thought of parting with a foster can be excruciating. But it is even more rewarding to see your “baby” leave in the arms of his new people, who will love him for the rest of his life. And, most important, an adopted foster frees up a spot for another needy rescue doxie.
Owners and animal shelters give us most of our rescues, but we also get them from other rescues or from vets’ offices or boarding kennels, where their owners abandon them.
Our foster parents must be over the age of 21 and either own their own home or have their landlord’s written permission to have pets. Foster parents will need to complete a foster application, participate in a home interview and read the educational material we provide.
Doxies coming into rescue are vetted, neutered and vaccinated, and then we match them up with suitable foster homes, where they reside until we find them permanent homes.
You’ll be expected to give your foster dachshund the same love and care as your resident pets. We may ask you to transport the doxie to and from vet appointments, if necessary, and administer any required medications. Although many rescues are housetrained, you will need to give a refresher course to new foster doxies and forgive a few accidents. You’ll also need to prevent the doxie from jumping up and down on things or otherwise injuring himself.
Your foster application will help us determine which of our rescues best fit your lifestyle. If there’s a particular doxie you’d like to foster, we’ll make every effort to accommodate you.
Absolutely! We do ask that your resident pets are friendly with other animals and your children are respectful and appropriate with dachshunds.
Because we don’t have much funding, we ask our foster parents to provide food and general supplies. We’ll give you information about what to feed, and if money is of concern, we can make arrangements to supply you with whatever the foster doxie needs.
SCDR pays for all authorized and necessary medical care. We require you to talk with us before taking your foster to the vet, so that we can keep our costs down whenever possible.
We can't guarantee how long it will take to find your foster dachshund a home. The average stay is about four weeks, but it could be as little as a few days or as much as a few months.
We will not place a contagious or aggressive dachshund with a foster family. We also will not place an unaltered dachshund into foster care. In any behavioral or medical issues emerge while the foster is in your care, we’ll deal with the problem immediately.
Because rescue dachshunds often get shuffled around before they come to their foster homes, we like for our foster parents to give it a week, whenever possible. After that time, if you would like to discontinue fostering a particular dachshund, all you have to do is let us know, and we will make other arrangements for the dachshund as soon as possible.
When your foster is ready, we will post his information on our website and on Petfinder. Interested parties will be asked to complete an application and home interview before meeting the dachshund, and then sign an adoption contract and pay an adoption fee.
We lose some of our best foster homes to adoptions! Our goal is to place each of our rescues in the best possible home, and sometimes that’s the dog’s foster home. We won’t make you fill out an adoption application, but you will need to sign an adoption contract and pay the adoption fee, so that we can continue to help needy doxies.
For more information, including a foster application, please email us or visit www.delgadog.com.
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