Our First (and still favorite) Foster

Maggie started us down this road. We had adopted dogs from Maryland German Shepherd Rescue (predecessor to Virginia German Shepherd Rescue), and from Animal Connections. However, Maggie was our first foster. When we met up with Animal Connections and adopted Cabell, I knew I wanted to get involved in rescue. I had the time and the space and it was something I wanted to do. We got word that there was a very pregnant female rottweiler at the Louisa County shelter. That was a pretty poor shelter in those days and neither the mother nor the pups stood much chance of getting out of there. It was March, 2000, just about St. Patrick's Day. I went to Southern States to buy a kennel while Clay and his mother went out to the shelter to spring the mother-to-be. These days we would have considering naming her Bristol, but 2000 was well before anyone had heard of the Palin clan, so we gave her a nice Irish name, Maggie, in honor of the season.


A week later, she delivered 10 puppies. She was new at this and so were we; she had no interest in being a mom, but a great interest in being our dog. Only 6 pups survived, but that was all she could handle even with inexpert help from Clay and me. We adopted one of the pups ourselves, known as Fuzzy Bear when he was a pup, and now called Bremo.


I wanted to keep Maggie, and she wanted to stay. She was fiercely loyal, fast, friendly, and playful. There was nothing not to like about Maggie. Gypsy, however, had other ideas. Gypsy is our alpha female, and her picture should be in the dictionary next to the word "bitch." Now, I love Gypsy; she is my girl and I'd do anything for her. She feels the same way about me. The only thing she wouldn't do for me is share my attention with another female. She hated Maggie and made it very clear that there would not be two female dogs in our household. The female shepherd/rottweiler match up was not a fight I wanted to be involved in, so I knew that we had to find a home for Maggie.



I was having some back problems at the time and was seeing a physical therapist named Laura who was engaged to another therapist named Eric. Both were young, active, and tall (long legs are essential for keeping up with Maggie), an ideal home for Maggie. They adopted Maggie and later moved to upstate New York. However, they have sent me christmas card photos of Maggie every year and it is the one thing I truely look forward to at christmas time. Maggie is getting some years on her now, and I realize that her pup, our Bremo, is soon to be 8 years old himself.


We've taken in, fostered, and adopted out hundreds of dogs since Maggie and her litter of pups. All those dogs owe a debt to Maggie, and even to Gypsy, who prevented us from keeping Maggie. I always tell people the story of Maggie and Gypsy when they ask how I can stand to give up a foster dog. Like many people who foster, I didn't want to give up my first foster dog, but I had to. Once I realized that I could take in a dog, love it as my own, and still adopt it out, it made me realize that fostering was a possibility. I couldn't be happier about the home and life that Maggie has had with Laura and Eric, and seeing her smiling face each year, if only in a photo, makes it all worthwhile.