Fresco the Foster Dog

Today we have undertaken a new and rather large endeavor. His name is Fresco. You might remember Fresco from my blog about him back in April after I took him to the Pet Expo in KC. Just a week or so after I'd fallen for him, he was adopted, and just a few days later I saw him walking down the street with his new "mom" and their baby in a stroller. I was so happy for him because it looked like he'd found a great forever family. However, over the weekend my friend JoAnna and I were volunteering when she gave me the bad news: Fresco had been returned by his adopters. Apparently he had a small Chihuahua mix for a "sibling," and in an altercation over a prized bone, the other dog's leg had been temporarily injured. I just couldn't believe that he did anything to hurt his Chi friend on purpose, but JoAnna's understanding was that he might be euthanized because of it. I was devastated by the thought of this wonderful dog being put down.

Since Monday is the day of the week that the the vet comes to the shelter to euthanize animals, I called and left a message for the director first thing Monday morning, telling her that I was interested in fostering Fresco. I was worried that she might consider him dangerous and/or unadoptable and have him put down immediately, or refuse to allow me to take him home unless I planned on keeping him permanently. I was rather shocked when one of the shelter staff members called me back to tell me the director said it was okay!

I couldn't pick Fresco up that night because I had a softball game, and last night I had to drive to KC to get my Race for the Cure team packet immediately after work, so tonight was the night I finally went to pick up our new charge. I was so nervous about getting him, not because I thought he would be a big problem (although he's coming at a slightly inconvenient time since we're going on vacation next week and still haven't found a dogsitter for our own dogs), but because I worry so much about how this situation will affect Celtic. He's never loved our foster dogs, partially because he's got little man's syndrome and is always intimidated by the big ones, and partially because they tend to take away from the attention he would normally be getting. After his brother died last year, I really thought we would never foster again while Celtic was still around, just for the sake of his mental and physical health, but I just didn't know what else to do for poor little Fresco!

So tonight we brought our one year old foster pup home, and as I guessed she would be, Hope was absolutely thrilled with the visitor! She had a great time wrestling and chasing him all around the yard, and we even had to break up a few wrestling matches going on in the house. Since Fresco is part Boxer, he throws some amazing punches and has some great moves, so Hope quickly realized that she'd rather play chase with him than wrestle! After getting whapped in the head a couple of times she decided she wasn't quite as excited about her new foster brother as she initially thought!!

As he's done with almost all of his foster siblings, Celtic started off by growling at Fresco every time he came close, but after a little outside playtime and some extensive sniffing, he seems to be doing better already. We just have to make sure he still is getting tons of attention because Fresco is definitely a huge attention hog!

I'll write more about our lanky, goofy little munchkin very soon!!