Fostering Pups is a Fine Family Affair

The Wiseman family: Grant, Heather, and their twins Abby and Audrey, can tell you that a great way to unwind from a tough day is with puppies. 

Heather has an after-work ritual of scooping a ball of fur out of its pen to play or stroking it to sleep in her lap. 

Currently, there are two puppy pens in the sunroom that opens onto a fenced yard.  One of the pens has four seven-week-old, weaned pups.    

These four are the “hobbit” litter: Dobby, Dori, Oliver and Scarlett.  Dobby, the runt, has the face of a quizzical spider monkey.  His foster- family is finally optimistic about Dobby’s prospects for overcoming developmental lag in his motor skills.  Brother Oliver dines on white rice while recovering from a digestive upset.  Fat and playful, Oliver’s tummy troubles don’t seem to slow him down.

In the other puppy pen, a small terrier-mix called Nala scrambles at the sides while we look in.  She has a week’s experience with mothering “Fred,” “George,” and “Ginny,” her three babies named from Harry Potter characters.  Nala displays the nervous insecurity of a new mom made pregnant as a babe herself.  Her three scattered puppies still look like drowned hamsters.

Nala’s babies are the eighth litter in a year that the Wisemans have fostered from the Aiken County Shelter.  The latest two litters were both two days old when they arrived.  The puppies don’t always come that young, but the family has learned a lot over the last year, and they prefer that the puppies come as soon as possible, even if it means having a litter whelped in their home.  They haven’t done that…yet.

“If they spend even a week at the shelter,” Heather says, “We can see the difference.  The puppies take time learning how to trust you.”  She runs her hand along the curved spine of the sleeping shape in her lap.

Why did the Wisemans decide to do it, especially, with young twins and three large permanent dogs of their own? 

It began as an exercise for the twins, now twelve, when they were much younger.  The family fostered one pup at a time then, and the rule still is: if we keep one, we are out of the fostering business.

The job comes with its share of heartache.   A neglected stray’s legacy to her pups can be parvo.  But the occasional struggle to save the ones they can, and even the inevitable losses, have brought surprising gifts.  The family learns and grows closer.  The parents watch their girls deepen as people. 

No matter its fate, each tiny creature is assured a name, and the experience of Love.   All the pups are immortalized on iPads and in photo albums, and most are transferred to exceptional shelters, and adopted to very good homes. 

The Wisemans are deeply committed to fostering service, and recommend others try.  But if you can’t foster puppies, we urge you to donate time, food, toys, and especially old newspapers, for those who do. 

  FOTAS Volunteers work with the AIKEN COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER, 411 Wire Road.  For more information, contact “info@fotasaiken.org” or visit FOTAS on line at www.fotasaiken.org

Aiken County Animal Shelter:  “By the Numbers”

July 2^nd thru 8^th

Received:   50 dogs & 28 cats

Adopted:     8 dogs & 3 cats

Euthanized:  20 dogs & 39 cats

 Aiken County Shelter “Pets of the Week” 

ASTRO & HEIDI – 4 mos. Lab/hound mix.   Brindle female, black male siblings who already walk beautifully on a leash.  $70 each. 

LULU – Domestic short-hair baby.  She’s too cute to be here instead of in your lap.  Only $35! 

 

All adoption fees include: Spay/Neuter, heartworm test, all shots, worming, and microchip!