Most animal shelters and rescues depend heavily upon volunteer foster parents to help rehabilitate an animal recovering from surgery or dealing with behavior issues. When the shelter is at capacity, they might reach out to fosters to take in an animal or two to help make room for incoming animals. In all cases, the foster length of stay is usually a month or less, but there are exceptions like "failed fosters," who fall in love with their foster animal and adopt the animal as a new pet for their family. Shelters love this outcome, but it is not the intention of a foster program.

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One of the few times we went to a breeder for a dog was 18-years ago. I remember I had to pick up the puppy because the breeder was bugging out due to the oncoming Hurricane Charley. The puppy was only 6-weeks old and was the runt of the litter. She was the size of a 3.5" floppy disk. We named her Fiona, and she was the only female dog we have ever owned. She was so different from the male dogs. I called her Baby Girl, and she was daddy's little girl.

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I recently lost one of my dogs, Max, to degenerative myelopathy. The disease slowly affects the dog's spinal cord, and they lose the use of their extremities. After 11 years of being a great and faithful companion, Max was losing his battle with the disease. He lost the use of his hind legs and could no longer control his bodily functions. We made the decision to help Max crossover the Rainbow Bridge and stayed with him during the euthanasia process.

Losing a pet is never easy. Grief is the normal and natural reaction to losing someone or something we care about. There is nothing wrong with how sad we feel when we lose a pet. I recently met with a grief counselor, and he said, "We don't deal with death and loss well as a society.

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