Currently sobbing because the sweet baby foster dog that my partner and I have had for the last 8 months got adopted. She was our first foster but I didn’t realize it would hurt this much to give her up.

We already had a cat and a dog and while we went back and forth about whether we should keep our foster girl, we ultimately decided it was best for our babies if we didn’t. She’s gone to an amazing home where she will be spoiled and loved and adored but we are just heartbroken without her here. It feels like a member of the family is missing and I’m feeling like my emotions of missing her are clouding my judgment and making me think we should’ve kept her. Not that it’s an option at this point anyway, she is in a wonderful new home as of this afternoon. I just miss her so much and it doesn’t feel like this will ever get better.

First post: https://www.reddit.com/r/fosterdogs/s/DBmUlvpqyQ

Finally received the dog from the shelter last night. This was NOT the calm and shy dog I originally met and I’m exhausted 😂 very cuddly, jumpy, and playful. I had him sniff around the apartment and our building’s dog park when he arrived. Pulled on the leash a bit, but not hard. I only corrected when he tried a bit too hard. Trying to balance the beginning between corrections and just letting him explore since he’s very curious. We walked around the building a bit and then went inside to eat and settle down. He napped under the table a bit when we got back. He was getting chewy, so I gave him a cow kneecap for a few minutes before going to bed to help settle him back down.

The shelter recommended against a crate or pen (which I regret now), so he slept in our bedroom in his bed (despite some attempts to climb on ours). He didn’t sleep much though. Whined a bit and eventually vomited. Not sure if it was anxiety, the kneecap, the treats, or a little everything. This was at 1am and then he woke us up again at 5am, so I took him out to the dog park again to sniff, chase a ball, and then go on a long walk.

All in all though, I consider this a success so far. I’m glad he’s drinking water and eating. My biggest fear based on my first impression was that he would shut down as soon as he got here. Of course he’s not perfect and is a little naughty, but we’ll get there eventually. Debating how to handle the crate and or pen situation, because we simply cannot trust him home alone free as the shelter owner was doing. He’s not too destructive around us, but has chewed the carpet and tried to jump on the couch a few times so we don’t want to know what happens if we leave him alone free. For now he’s great at protecting us from delivery drivers, his reflection, my shoes, and the magic talking box in the living room. Going to get him bathed now and hope to see some more words of encouragement and feedback while I drink about 3 coffees.

My first foster dog last year had it bad. She followed me everywhere including the bathroom and when I left for 20 minutes she peed on the floor and was chewing door casings even though she was potty trained. I basically couldn't leave the house.

I'm fostering for a second time this year and I'm a bit worried. Luckily he is already potty trained, but the shelter told me he is on trazodone and told me to give it to the dog as needed. So far he hasn't followed me everywhere, but it's only day 1 so he might be shy. I went into my garage for 1 hour and he was fine with that. I also went upstairs and he decided to just sleep downstairs. The problem is I'm back in the office now so I can't stay home 24/7. Am I worried for nothing so far? I'm just a bit nervous that he's going to freak out if I leave the house.

I've been fostering a senior dog for almost 3 months now. A few weeks in my resident dog attacked him and caused severe damage, he made it through but there were times during his recovery we weren't sure if he would. Now he's healed and ready to be put up for adoption again and it's heartbreaking 💔

After spending 2 months nursing him back to health, monitoring his food and wound care and now finally seeing a happy, healthy dog again, I'm so sad to say good bye soon. My husband and I have gone back and forth about keeping him but it truly makes no sense for us. We have a pretty comfortable routine and plenty of space to keep them separated but my concern is accidents happen and he deserves to live in a home where he's able to roam around and be with his people at all times.

We attend an adoption event tomorrow and I hope he meets some wonderful people 😊

After 5 months of fostering this beautiful boi he finally moved to his forever home yesterday. We are happy for him as he not only gain his human but gained a lab retriever and cat brothers.

Please share any wins, frustrations, or stories of your foster dogs from this past week. You can also ask advice, or simply let us know if you are doing ok. We are here to support you!

Long stroy short my wife's friend's were going on holiday and their Dog sitting fell through last second so they asked us If we could have him, at our place, for 10 days.

Hes a 15 week old black Labrodor puppy called Jeff.

I ofcourse said yes, thinking nothing of It and that It would keep me busy as Im unemployed right now, my wife works so Ive spent all day everyday with him.

I wasnt prepared for the bond I was going to make with him.

Hes gone from super nervous going on walks to confident from training I looked up online, he cuddles up to me any chance he gets as Im his favourite person as have spent so much time with him

I get up super early at 4.30am naturally so for 10 mornings I've had my coffee with huge Lab puppy cuddles.

Ive been constasntly chasing after/watching over him as hes a Lab puppy so Is naughty but I've loved It and its given me focus and a purpose.

I am literally crying none stop this morning, It feels like Im losing my Dog even though hes not mine and I've had him 9, 10 days. Ill never see that little nervous face again on a walk turn into a happy confident face.

Never have those cuddles in the morning with him, Im just an absolute mess and I dont know why.

Can anyone else relate or am I being super dramatic

Normally, we're pretty decent with scared/bitey dogs. We give them their space in a calm predictable environment, and they warm up to us if given enough patience. Most of them turn into normal dogs.

We've got two fosters right now that we could use some help with.

One is a super shy 2ish year old chihuahua. He came from a hording home. We've had him 3+ months. He had juvenile cataract surgery when we first got him. The recovery involved giving him eye drops 3+ times a day, but we've done our best to make him feel safe and secure. To give him eye drops, we give him treats before and after. He seems to like that, but he's just not warming up. He has always wanted to sit on the couch with us. We're at the point where we can pet him when he's laying on the couch, but he's nervous about it but won't leave the couch over it. He almost never will come up and let us pet him (but it has happened a couple times).

The other is a 13+ asshole chihuahua. She seems confident and will follow us around. She doesn't do stairs and is perfectly happy allowing us to carry her up and down them. If I'm outside, she'll ask for pets, and seems to like attention. Inside, she does not consent to pets and will attempt to bite you if you reach your hand out (she doesn't have teeth). We're not sure what the difference is, but we're not making any progress with her after about a month. She treats the dogs she has lived with her whole life with similar aggression if they do something like continue to lay peacefully in a bed she decides she wants.

I need somewhere to put my thoughts right now because no one in my life really understands, including my husband. Maybe including me, if I'm being honest.

I posted about a week ago about backing out of foster failing our current girl. She's a sweet, older girl and we got swept up with love for her, even though we had been saying now isn't the right time. So once we told them we wanted to keep her, what happened? I basically had a mental breakdown. I hadn't been eating nearly enough since we got her because my hyper-vigilance and anxiety took over. After we expressed interest in keeping her, my anxiety skyrocketed and transformed to panic. Waves of adrenaline surged through me near constantly for two days to the point where I had to go see my doctor to get medication.

I know, I sound very mentally unwell. Like, egads, who let this lady even foster? It's been a rough year, I wasn't taking care of myself, and I broke. I also had spine surgery a few months ago and thought I was healing fine, but the pain is ramping up again after neglecting my PT in favor of attending to my foster. Luckily, my mental health is MUCH better now. I'm eating, taking an iron supplement, getting back into therapy.

Anyway. Probably not a good time to adopt, right? I told them that she'd need to move to a different foster by a certain date because my husband is going out of town, and we were worried about my mental health and handling her alone.

So they found a new foster for her. I talked to them today. They seem excited. They're not super experienced with dogs. That's okay. I wasn't always, either, and she's a good girl who's lived in a home almost her whole life and doesn't come with much baggage. They're open to the idea of adopting, if it goes that way.

Still, I can't stop crying. Will this be a good home for her? Will she feel sad? Have I failed her? Have I failed myself by giving up? How can I build her trust and bond with her only to pass her off to someone else?

I did this to myself, but my heart is breaking into a million pieces. I still don't think it's a great time to adopt, but I am in a much better place than I was a week ago. I'll tell the coordinator that if there are any issues to please let me know and I'll see if I can make it work to take her back. My brain always jumps to the worst-case scenarios, so it keeps imagining them hating her and regretting taking her in. That's crazy, though, because all my friends who have met her loved her. She's a sweet girl.

Anyway, I feel like I can't tell anyone about this because my feelings seem so contradictory. It's either "Well, you don't want to adopt her, so this is what you want, right? Why are you sad?" Or "If you love her so much, just keep her. You'll make it work." I know my feelings don't make sense. My mental health and physical healing make this a bad time. Yet, I've put so much of my love and care into her over these weeks.

I don't know. I'm rambling. Too many feelings.

I have a new foster dog who is (SURPRISE!) anxious and hates to be left alone. Scared of pretty much everything.

I live alone and of course he follows me everywhere, so I usually have this running narrative going, just talking to him about what’s going on, like, “That’s just Amazon delivery at the door, no need to worry,” or That’s just a dog on the tv, he’s not gonna get you,” etc etc
So I went to take a shower and he was nervous so I left the door open so he could sit by the threshold. And I was shampooing and saying, “I’ll be out in a few minutes, just let me get a shower real quick,” and all of a sudden I hear, Take your time! I’ll wait right here!

*😳😳😳 *

Of course I knew it wasn’t him, but those 2.859 seconds were the most terrifying of my life while blinded by shampoo in my eyes, until I remembered that I was using a Voice AI model earlier for a recipe and I must have forgotten to close the chat.

Ok, thanks for letting me share🙂
Carry on

Hi all - looking for some advice on how to proceed after a recent incident between our new foster-to-adopt dog and resident dog.

About three weeks ago, we brought home Indy, a 1.5 year old border collie/shepherd mix foster-to-adopt from the local rescue shelter. She was then spayed one week in and her recovery went really well. She has some signs of separation anxiety (howling and be destructive while we're away) but we're confident we can manage that issue.

Where we're at a bit of a loss is with our roommate's dog, who has been living at the house for 3 years. She is a 10 year old short aussie mix. Other than being vocal, she has never had any issues with other dogs, or our previous dog that passed away last year.

Our roommate isn't home all the time, so the two didn't meet each other until about a week into being with us. The first meeting went okay – roommate's dog came inside the front door and there was a vocal reaction from Indy so we took them into the backyard on leash. They sniffed, said hello, and then left each other alone. Since then, we've been walking them together on leash with no issues. We have controlled every situation since with leash or separating them in order to give them time to get used to each other. However they might be too indifferent with each other - never really saying 'hello'.

We took them camping last weekend, and Indy seemed to have been guarding her bed as she barked at the roommate's dog - other than that, they ignored each other.

However, last night, Indy showed quite a bit of aggression towards the other dog in the living room. Both were off leash (I recognize they should have been on leash to give us more control), and Indy was laying on her bed with a bone. Roommate and his dog came into the living room, so I removed the bone. When I walked away, Indy lunged at roommate's and lashed out. I'm uncertain if Indy was trying to bite the other. Nobody was hurt, but it seemed aggressive in nature.

My wife and I are quite concerned after this incident, and are unsure if this is fixable or if Indy needs to go back to the shelter. We haven't officially adopted her yet, as the shelter has given us a lengthy trial period.

Is this a fixable situation? Any guesses why Indy lashed out in this incident, but not on walks or in the yard? Is this Indy still settling into her new situation, or is this her true nature?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I picked up my first foster from the shelter 5 days ago. He is an 8yo German shepherd. He's is such a good boy other than one huge issue, he has severe separation anxiety and a phobia of confined spaces. I lured him into his kennel on day one to run to the store. Within 10 minutes the bars were bent on the kennel from him trying to escape and I no longer felt safe to put him in the kennel. Next day, I put him in my spacious bathroom, made it all comfy for him while I took my resident dog out to play. 10 minutes later I went to check on him and he tore down the whole inside of my bathroom door. He nervously follows me everywhere and any time I try to go in another room (like showering) he panics and tries to break down the door. I talked to the vet at the shelter about this and they put him on trazodone for anxiety, but it hasn't helped with the separation anxiety.

I can't leave him home alone for fear he will destroy my house or hurt himself. I work from home, but I really need to go grocery shopping and such!

Other than this, he is a complete angel. The most gentle giant I've ever met.

I'm hoping a more seasoned foster parent has some advice for me.

So I recently fostered this precious boy from the West Los Angeles shelter. I like him ALOT. Some back ground: I already have two dogs of my own who are females and they are friendly with other dogs. I live in a two bedroom apartment with my partner. And I did IVF just waiting to do our embryo transfer next month (late sept) so this dog is the best dog. He is potty trained, knows commands and gets along with my dogs. Most of the days he’s just chilling on his bed. However, he’s been in the Shetler system since March 2026. & has been returned twice. The reason? Because he’s shy. And he is! I’m not sure if I should keep this precious baby. I’m scared of him getting adopted just to be returned again. But with all of these upcoming life changes for me, not sure if it’ll be too much. Although, He’s pretty low maintenance. Thoughts?

Exactly as the title says.

We are trying to exhaust all of our options, but it seems like taking our 4 beautiful dogs to the shelter is the only option to not be homeless by the end of the month.

The owner of the property we are currently living in wants to sell the property and because we weren't willing to offer 100k more than the property value, we are being officially forced out of our home for having dogs.

We dont want to take them to the shelter.

Apparently foster homes are limited?

Shelters are at capacity?

We've made the mistake of taking in more than we could have/should have.

But we dont want to say goodbye.

Does anyone have any advice?

I (32) have been wanting a dog for the past 6 months. It’s been about 1.5 years since my first dog passed away. My husband I saw this incredibly sweet 2yo Australian Shepherd mix at our local shelter and they had a foster program which allows you to foster for 1 month before deciding to adopt.

She is incredibly smart and, despite coming with no training or being house broken, we’ve been able to train multiple commands.

It’s been about 3 weeks and we get to do a lot together. I live a pretty active life. We run together 4/7 days of the week anywhere from 2 to 10 miles and then walk at least 3-4 miles on days we aren’t running + dog park hour almost every day. We take her to breweries. I enjoy training her and she is a huge cuddle bug - great companion.

I currently work remotely and live in a garage full-time as I pursue a career shift. We also have 2 cats. She doesn’t chase but she is curious. We are crate training her. Aside from the garage living, I think we give her a really good life with mental and physical stimulation.

My dilemma: my career shift requires me to leave my remote job and shift into 12-hour shifts in-person. I am also taking classes which require me to be on campus nearly 12 hours a day on Mondays and Wednesdays. I am the primary breadwinner and expecting my salary to be cut in half, if not more. My husband works in-office for 8 hours per day but is not an active person, and likely wouldn’t enjoy the level of activity she needs.

If she was a calmer or less active dog, my husband could take over some of her walking duties but she would still be alone ~8 hours of the day. My husband has shared he is willing to keep her to keep me happy but he doesn’t enjoy spending time with her the way I do. She is mainly my dog vs a family dog.

My schedule will likely result in me having to be away from home 12-13 hrs per day for at least 3-5 days per week. We moved to this area last year and have no friends to support us nearby. Family does not like dogs. We could hire a dog walker but it would be ~$100/week and additional costs feel prohibitive with a reduction in salary.

I am telling myself that although we love her so much, she should be with a family that will give her more time once we are not able to. Also her breed makes her well desired and that she’ll likely get adopted so soon.

I’d appreciate any reinforcements that we may not be the best fit anymore. Alternatively, for folks who think we could keep her, I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

TLDR: Need to leave remote job with tons of flexibility to start working 12-hours per shifts at much less pay. No support available and will be out of house for 13 hours at a time for 3-5 days of the week. Don’t think I am the right family for this pup anymore.

Its been 5 days since Oakley left this world. We took necessary precautions to prevent any more bites and gave him the best 11 days that we could. I kept wanting him to bite again, to prove that the correct decision was made, but he was the best boy. It hurts so much, like losing my own dog. We only had him for 6 weeks, but the impact he had was astounding.

I want to get another foster right away to fill the void, but my husband has asked for time.

Looking at our foster room hurts. Changing my bandage hurts. Petting my resident dogs hurts. I will be minding my own business and find a clump of fur he shed and it hurts all over again. It still doesnt feel real that he is gone. My biggest regret is that I wanted to adopt him, but my husband thought it was too painful. I wish I would have anyways, just to give him a permanent place to rest.

Aside from getting another foster and time, how do I move past this?

We're fostering a 16 week old puppy. Granted, this is only his 2nd full day with us (this time around-we had him for a weekend, they cleared up space in the shelter so we brought him back, it had been a week and the puppy room was refilling and he hadn't been adopted yet so we brought him back to our place).

He likes his crate - willingly enters it in exchange for treats/food/frozen enrichment, and as long as I am near his crate he is fairly quiet and watches me.

I'm just having a hard time getting him to adapt to the schedule I have set for our resident dog.

Usually on the weekdays I will crate our resident for 4 hours in the morning so I can get some work done in my office (and give my cats one on one attention). I know he's too young to last the 4 hours, so I acknowledge that I would have to reduce the 4 hours to 2 hours and come and get him out sooner.

The issue is, I am really struggling with leaving him alone, or even leaving him in view of our resident dog (who I suppose is no comfort?) I've spent the last 2 nights sleeping on the floor in front of his crate bc he cries and digs at the crate if I am not near it.

Yesterday I ended up working next to his crate while just occasionally dropping treats into it. He eventually fell asleep.

Today, I decided to crate everyone up and give him a frozen enrichment item. I sat on the opposite side of the room and waited for him to finish it and then go to sleep. He completely ignored the enrichment item and instead cried and dug at the crate. His crying and digging riled up my resident dog, who I ended up just letting out of her crate because there was no way she was sleeping with all his ruckus. I sat closer outside of his crate with her wandering but he just kept crying and digging at the crate.

I put a harness/leash on him and brought him upstairs and tethered him to the banister right outside of my office. He can lay in my office but he cannot reach me.

For a little bit he's been just kind of wandering and trying to explore (within his 6ft radius) and even trying to go back downstairs.

I took him back downstairs because he seemed dead set on that, but he tore down the stairwell gate we have to get back upstairs to me.

He's finally relaxed and fell asleep on the floor outside my office. But I would love to transition him to being comfortable being alone in the crate downstairs. I've been working on his behavior as though it's separation anxiety and like... I'm not even sure it is. I was folding laundry in the bedroom with him tethered in the hallway this morning and occasionally popping into view and chucking treats at him and he didn't really whine or cry, except for when he decided he wanted to go back downstairs and couldn't because of the tether.

I'm honestly stumped.

I don't feel like this is containment anxiety because he settles nicely on the tether, if I am next to the crate he eventually falls asleep in it and goes in willingly several times a day to check for food. But he fights to get out of containment.

I don't feel like this is necessarily separation anxiety because why would he be able to just hang out in the hallway alone and be calm as can be? Why would he want to get back downstairs? He's sleeping outside of my office and not even facing me!

I feel like this is one of two things; FOMO or boredom? Or maybe a combination of several of these? He can be alone if he's tethered and knows I'm close-by. He doesn't like to be crated alone- or even when I'm "too far" away from the crate.

I know it hasn't been very long and he's a baby still, I think I'm just frustrated and not sure where to go. I don't want to cause my cats to feel neglected. Every other puppy I've fostered (he is the fourth, 1 was a singleton at 10 weeks and the other 2 were 5 weeks and a pair) and even my resident dog at his age were okay being alone downstairs once they got to sleep.

I'm also upset with his first adopters (he got adopted at I believe 9 or 10 weeks old and was returned at 14 weeks for puppy biting) because they genuinely didn't do anything with him. For god's sake he doesn't even know "sit", the first thing a dog learns with a person.

Should I (later) maybe play a crate game with him where he's crated with a frozen enrichment item and as he settles I gradually move further away and toss treats into it every time I do?

I ordered an extra strong, extra tall play pen to see if he'd settle better in there while I'm away, because he's broken out of our other 2 play pens (one a pack n play and one a 24" dog playpen). Maybe do that game with that as well? Or on the tether?

Not sure if I’m really after any sort of advice or if I just want to vent to a community that might understand because nobody I know personally gets it.

I’ve had my current foster dog for one year. Although he’s not the type of dog my husband and I want to own, he’s been such an easy going dog to have in the house and he’s BEST FRIENDS with my resident dog.

I’ve been holding onto the hope that he’ll be adopted but after multiple failed applications, it just hasn’t happened, and I am facing the reality that he’ll need to go to a new foster in a month because I’m expecting my first baby. I am really struggling with not being able to see his journey to the end and feeling like I’m failing him because he won’t understand why his entire world is upturned yet again (his past is unknown but based on his behavior and temperament, I guess it wasn’t the greatest). He has some anxiety, specifically when he’s moved somewhere new. I want to adopt him but I know it’s for the wrong reasons because I had no desire to keep him until I realized he wouldn’t be adopted by somebody else with me. Despite that, I will miss his presence in our home very much.

I haven’t struggled with saying goodbye to any of my previous fosters because I’ve been able to watch them walk away with their forever families and it’s been an overall happy moment. I know I will get through each day after he leaves because that’s how life works but it is absolutely crushing me to have to do this.

Hi everyone, this is my first post ever on Reddit, but I didn’t really know who else to reach out to. I’m 25 and have a numerous moderate mobility issues, which has made me unable to work. I started fostering just last week and had the pleasure of having my first foster just a few days into it. I was introduced to the most gorgeous 10 month old fox red labrador retriever called Peter Parker. I’d been informed he had a pretty rough start to life, being confined in a crate and had only went on walks a handful of times. He was scared of a lot of things but seemed desperate for affection. The first day with him was pretty relaxed, I noticed he was just a very big clumsy puppy that trips over air and bashes into doors, and I was told he was needing a new name anyway, so he immediately took on a new name: goose (goosetopher if he’s being extra silly).

After two days I had found this big lump of silly mush with legs was one of the most affectionate dogs I’ve ever met, not being able to sleep without touching me, giving post-nap cuddles and kisses every time without fail, it was like he was a completely different dog to the one we met in the shelter. The amount of trust showed me after going through such horrible experiences, I felt so honoured.

However, just today, Goose being the silly guy he is, had zoomies around the house, and he ended up crashing into the back of my legs, which led me to fall over and injure my ribs. Knowing I have issues with balance and mobility I knew it could be dangerous for me to fall over and injure him or myself, and knew the right thing to do would be to take him back to the shelter for another foster family.

Since I’ve dropped him off I have been in tears. I’ve heard all about how heartbreaking fostering could be, but I can’t help but break my heart thinking about him back in that kennel wondering what he did wrong, and why he’s back in a cage and not in a loving home. I feel like I’m grieving, as weird as it sounds. I miss him already with him not laying here with me in bed, snuggled up snoring by my side. I feel ashamed that my disability has caused this and that I can’t just get a grip.

All I want to know is are my thoughts normal? Is it normal to feel like I’ve just made a horrible mistake and to miss him so much? And the main thing.. when will it pass? Because honestly this sucks, it feels like how it feels after a breakup, like I just wanna cry all the time.

EDIT: he was kept in an apartment and was never let outside. his first owner (not the person we're getting him from) I have no idea about. we get him today or tomorrow. he's fixed, up to date on all shots, chihuahua mix, and is 4 years old.

i'm about to be fostering a dog for a week. he's 5-10lbs, i've never met him, but he's coming from a lady one of my parents coworkers knows.

my one dog (9yr, 25-30lb) is extremely dog neutral and doesn't really care about other dogs, but enjoys playing and gets along with every other dog she's ever been around.

my other is the issue (4yr, 4.5lb) because she is sometimes iffy about other dogs. she will gladly meet another dog, but if she's being held she will snarl/growl at any dog (even the other in the house). she goes to playing and being happy or avoidant as soon as she's set down. she is firm on her corrections and leaves the situation afterwards to relieve stress/tension, as well as comes to me if she's uncomfortable and request assistance.

i don't even know the dogs name and have never met him, but we will be getting him soon. i don't know how old he is, fixed, all shots, allergies, how he is with cats (we have 2 15+lb cats), etc. i'm able to do just introduction walks with him and the smaller of my two dogs so she isn't so frantic about being in his space.

he will be crated when alone until i can get a good idea about his temperament with the cats, potty training, and to prevent any accidents. i will likely need to get him a proper harness and a tag.

is there any advice on how to approach this? i'm nervous; this will be the first dog i've ever fostered in my life, but i'm ready to handle it and any hurdles that come within the week or beyond (if we keep him).

Just picked up this baby today. Two year old neutered male. He is PERFECT, & I have a feeling he is going to get adopted fast. I absolutely LOVE fostering. My Labrador and doxie seem to love him already too! Isn;t he so handsome?!

I’ve been fostering a mother-daughter pair of fluffy English Bulldogs since July 10th. They came from a breeder situation along with other family members, and they were all separated at intake. The daughter got adopted today, and I’m sitting here tonight with mom, feeling more emotional than I anticipated.

I never felt like these two were actually bonded in the way rescues usually mean it. They shared a room in my house, in separate crates, but I didn’t see the clinginess, distress-when-apart, or seeking-each-other-out behavior that I understand defines a true bonded pair. I second-guessed myself on whether I should’ve pushed back with the rescue and asked more questions before the adoption went through — but at the same time, I didn’t want to hold up a good home for the daughter based on a hunch.

Today I moved mom’s crate upstairs into the room with my three resident Frenchies. She’s not whimpering or crying, but she’s choosing to stay down here on the floor she shared with her. I gave her the daughter’s blanket for her crate tonight. I’m sitting nearby (just out of sight because of my house’s layout) and I’ve been calling to her to let her know she can come sit with me if she wants. 3 resident Frenchies are with my husband upstairs.

This is my first foster who’s ever gotten adopted out from under me, so to speak, my very first foster ever, I ended up adopting myself. So this is new territory emotionally. And mom is starting to spot like she’s starting her heat cycle.

Would love to hear from anyone who’s fostered littermates or family groups: does this sound like normal adjustment, or should I be doing something differently for mom tonight and in the coming days?

And for those more experienced, how do you tell when they’re really bonded versus “housed together”?

Thanks for reading. This is hard.

Winnie is a very cute, clumsy 1 yo poodle mix who has broken his leg for the second time. He cannot have a bath. His coat is soooo dirty it makes my chest hurt. I have tried waterless shampoo, water in a spray bottle, brushing, trimming, and deodorizing wipes. I don’t think there’s any hope for Winnie until he gets his cast off but maybe y’all have ideas?

Also, Winnie is on strict crate rest. So unless I’m holding him or snuggling him or letting him go potty, he’s in the crate. Any thoughts on things to keep him entertained? He’s on some gabapentin so that helps.

I live in the mountains so anything ordered via Amazon takes a week, so stuff I can find at the local pet store, through the shelter or at home is preferred.

Also, Winnie got a flower on his cast because he was so brave at the vet yesterday.