It Takes a Village

I had no idea what we were getting into when we agreed to foster Sadie.  We just felt like it was the right thing to do for Sadie.   She needed a home and we have one of those.  It's not like we have tons of extra time or money and with 5 kids, 3 under 6, a part time job and homeschooling,  I consider it a successful day if I get to brush my teeth AND take a shower.   So when we got Sadie, we ended up with a young dog who was not housebroken, had no idea how to walk on a leash, was terrified of most things, couldn't go up or down our stairs, was too unhealthy to  be spayed and was going to need lots of $$ to pay for medical bills.  We knew we would have to deal with the money issue eventually but we had more important things to work on with Sadie.  As time went on,  Sadie improved in every way just by living in a home...with a family.  The little girls helped so much.  She never seemed scared of them and they could get her to do things Tim and I couldn't.
Finally,  we knew it was time to face her spinal injury and now we needed the money.  Bottom line is that I am a fundraising "idiot".  I DISLIKE begging for money even if it's a cause I am passionate about.  I am more the "doer" (take care of the special needs children and animals) not the "fundraiser" (anything having to do with business or money).  Thank goodness other people are good at business and money!   The all around support we have received for Sadie is amazing.  Fellow rescuers, old friends, and new friends have donated money, donated items, helped me set up facebook pages, updated our website, forwarded Sadie's information to their friends,  advised me on everything from food to legal matters to medical advice,  helped me socialize Sadie at the park, volunteered their cat to see how Sadie reacts to them,  listened to my fears and given moral support with emails, messages and phone calls.  The bottom line is we could not do this for Sadie without everyone's help.  We wish we could do everything she needs without help from others but we can't.  We are more appreciative than we can express.  Not only has Sadie benefitted from all the support but our whole family has too.  Our little girls have learned so much from this whole experience.  They learned that there are bad people in this world that hurt animals.  They also learned that there are WONDERFUL people who are willing to HELP animals.  Perhaps the most important lesson they are learning is that you don't have to be perfect to be worthy and happy.  I can't think of a better lesson for them to learn at an early age.

So again, thank you all for being there for Sadie.  There are so many of you that I would like to mention by name but I am scared I will leave someone out!  You know who you are :)  We know we will  need a lot of moral support during her surgery and recovery.  It's comforting to know that we have so many friends who will be there for us.  Hopefully, we will find the right home for Sadie when she has recovered from her surgery.  We hope there is someone out there with a loving family who is home a lot, is willing to train her to be a therapy dog, lets their dogs be 100% part of their family, has another nice dog or two to play with, has a one story home and a lot of carpet :o)  That's our wish for Sadie.  The girls were really sad when Beau, our last foster,  left but I told them that we can't help other dogs if we keep all our fosters.   If we can't find a perfect home, she can stay here forever in our imperfect but loving home.