My Longest Foster to Date

Two months ago, a whirlwind came into my life. Petite pittie Pinky came bounding into my heart (and home!) with a zest for life, a penchant for human affection, unending energy and playfulness; a Pandora’s Box of joy and challenges, simultaneously.

Pinky’s pre-rescue story is sort of a sad one. She was, quite literally, locked in a crate for a year. I imagine it was because of her intimidating energy level. Most likely, she had to do everything in her crate from eat, to eliminate, to sleep and everything nothing else a dog needs to do, like exercise.

Finally, a family member secretly clipped the lock and called for her rescue. So it’s no wonder she’s such a whirling dervish, but I am always amazed by the resiliency of dogs. After such neglect, you’d think she wouldn’t know how to behave around people or dogs, but it’s quite the opposite. Sure, she’s a bit in your face, but all she wants is for everyone to love her.

And to my surprise, we immediately met someone on the street that day who desperately wanted to adopt her. Her squirmy body and shining face drew him in even more quickly than they drew me in. But unfortunately, the adoption wasn’t going to work out.

So Pinky stuck around, and is now officially my longest foster dog to date. Before her, it was My Boy Bill who held the record at six doggie-bliss-filled weeks, but he wasn’t even officially adoptable for two of them because of his medical condition.

Pinky taught me a valuable lesson in fostering over these two months; one that I wrote about briefly a while back. You see, with my last foster dogs, there wasn’t really anything to work on. They all seemed to come in these nice little packages, with ribbons and bows and a big friendly smile.

But Pinky was not far from perfect: her energy level could have become a deterrent for potential adoptions, we had a few (hopefully now resolved) issues with house-breaking, and she had a lack of basic obedience training. Oh, and one of the most grievous offenses in a New York City apartment: vocalizing.

Pinky took work. A lot of work. But she’s gotten accustomed to home life now and the change in her behavior is noticeable. So noticeable that something very exciting may be happening very soon…

Pinky is still available for adoption through the Picasso Veterinary Fund of The Mayor’s Alliance for New York City’s Animals. If you or anyone you know would be interested in adopting her, please email pvfadoption@animalalliancenyc.org.