YOU AIN'T NOTHING BUT A HOUND DOG.....

A friend of mine in Rhode Island, who shares a love of animals like myself, recently sent me a picture of a dog searching for a foster home. Mind you, I've received many emails from her with other dogs also needing fostering/permanent homes. There was something about this dog which captured me.

His story is this - he was found by a rescue group down in Tennessee. He'd been shot and starved. Luckily they were able to tend to his wounds and get him on the mend. They said with all the prodding and poking they did he never complained. His name is Tracker and he is a Beagle/Treeing Walker Coonhound mix. Basically he looks like a Beagle with the long ears, but he has long legs and big paws. He's beautiful!

I inquired more about fostering him, and learned that a great rescue group out of Massachusetts would be bringing him and a bunch of other dogs up to New England from the shelter in TN. My contact at this group, Joanne, said that the shelter where Tracker was being held has a high-kill rate - about 90%! So this rescue group does what they can to bring dogs up this way to give them a chance in life. They have horror stories on their web site (http://kesalerno.googlepages.com/home) - dogs with broken jaws after being kicked, starved dogs, neglected dogs and dogs like Tracker who get shot.

After discussing this with Shaun (he really had no choice!), we decided we would open up our home to foster him. Mind you, we have a six-year old black Lab (Jack) and a 10-month old kitten (Maisy) so our house should have a "No Vacancy" sign up as it is. But if there's room in your heart, there's room in your house (I just wrote that - so beautiful).

After working out some kinks, we finally brought Tracker home. He's a BEAUTIFUL dog with a sweet personality! He gets along great with Maisy, Jack and the kids. What's funny is when we first got him home he was afraid of stairs. I literally had to pick him up and carry him up/down. However, I'm happy to report he's conquered that fear (Joanne said many times these dogs have never lived in homes before). He's so sweet and just wants to be loved. How anyone could shoot an animal like him is beyond me.

For now we are just fostering him. He's on petfinder.com and also Craig's List. I'm in no rush to give him up, and feel very protective of him. We've talked about keeping him, but I can already sense the jealousy in Jack (and with three animals in the kitchen it's a little "zoo-like"). I'd really love to find him a great home on a farm or someplace with a lot of land. Also, someone with patience as he needs to learn basic commands and how to eat like it's not his last meal (he's still very skinny). I guess when you think of foster kids, he's pretty much the same thing. Without a loving, stable home it's easy to feel unsure of what each day will bring. Plus, I'd love to keep fostering and become the "Ellis Island"for these beautiful animals.

It's daunting for me to think about all the dogs and cats out there needing good homes, and how many hundreds of thousands get euthanized every year. People like Joanne who are out there trying to make a difference are true heroes in my book.