St. Maggie's Day

Many people know today as St. Patrick's Day and celebrate by drinking to excess.  That's all well and good, there should be more such holidays.  But for our household, today is an anniversary of sorts.  Ten years ago today Clay and his mother drove out to the Louisa County shelter and brought home our first foster dog, a very smelly and very pregnant rottweiler that they named Maggie.

A week later she gave birth to 10 puppies.  She was a teenage mother, should never had gotten pregnant, had no business being pregnant, and had no interest in being a mother.  With our help, or maybe in spite of it, she managed to raise 6 of the pups.  It was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind and disinterested.  One of the surviving pups is our boy Bremo who will be 10 a week from today. 

Although we lost 4 of the puppies, it started a chain of events that has saved  hundreds of other dogs.  Maggie was our first foster and I don't think we've been without one since.  Actually I don't think we've been without more than one since that time.  At the moment we are down to six fosters and the number usually varies between 6 and 12, sometimes more, rarely less. 

It was when we had Maggie that we learned just how adamant our Gypsy is about being the only female dog around. So we found Maggie a great home with a young couple who now live in upstate New York.  They recently had a set of twins, but Maggie is older so I suspect she is ok with the fact that they don't have as much time for outdoor activities with her. They have given her a great life and I'll be eternally grateful to them for that.

I've told this story previously on this blog and I've recounted it many times to other foster homes or potential foster homes who think they couldn't foster because they would never be able to part with them. St. Maggie didn't know much about being a mother, but she sure taught us a lot.  They all do.  If I've failed to learn something new from a foster dog since, it's either because they moved out of here so quickly that I didn't have a chance, or I was too stupid and just missed it. 

I haven't tried to keep track of the numbers.  They don't matter.   Unfortunately, it's a meager effort and a mere drop in the bucket.  I am proud of converting people to the cause-- some becoming repeat adopters, fosters themselves, or supporters in other ways.  We do it for the dogs, not the people, but an occasional pleasant side effect has been the numerous wonderful people we've met along the way, as adopters and fellow rescuers.

I have made more mistakes than I care to recall, but I'd like to think I've learned from them.  I'm not always nice to people, but we don't do this for people.  I do always try to keep the dogs' best interest at heart.  I won't call it a "journey" because I've come to detest that much overused word, but I will borrow another phrase and just say "what a long, strange trip it's been."