The Dog Days of Summer

Summer time is the time of the year that we do not look forward to here in Florida, not just because of the heat, but because of the pace in rescue.  Adoptions come to a screeching halt and it is frustrating beyond belief.  One look at how long some of our dogs have been in foster care, should be an indication.  We have some gorgeous dogs that are still here, and have not been adopted.  If this was November or December, our dogs would’ve been adopted in just a few days.

Summer time also brings vacations.  Transporters and fosters planning much needed vacations means I have to play musical chairs with our dogs.  Combine all of this with the need to have several mandatory emergency spaces for critical situations and you can clearly see that not only are we full, we will be full for quite some time.  Because this is the last week of school, I anticipate things to become even slower.

We made commitments to specific dogs months ago, and those spaces have been promised, two from Alabama, and one from Miami.

As our current dogs are adopted, a space will become available, and that space must be reserved for dogs in danger.  If a dog is not in a kill shelter, or is being fostered by someone outside of TDL, it is not in danger.

We are not the only rescue in the Southeast, and we have watched thousands of dogs that we could not take ultimately find safety elsewhere.  We are however, probably one of the smallest rescues with regard to space.

We must also communicate with our fosters that if they make a commitment to foster a dog, the dog may be in their care for longer than usual.

If you are interested in fostering for us, know that we will not just throw a dog your way without considering your family dynamics, your current dogs, home and schedule.  We match up our dogs with fosters as well as we match up our dogs with adopters.  Being careless, and creating an unpleasant experience for our fosters hurts our rescue efforts in the long run.

We ask the shelters, pounds, and their awesome volunteers to understand that when we say no about taking in a dog it’s not out of choice but out of necessity.

I ask for everyone to be patient and understanding.  We will not over burden our foster homes, we will not inconvenience others, we will not hoard, nor we will we bite off more than we can chew.