Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Ballad of Daisy and Goofy

One day back in November, I passed by an animal rescue group that was fundraising outside Shinjuku station in Tokyo. I picked up one of their flyers and gave them a donation. Then in December, I started looking up information about animal rescue in Japan and...
I found out that Stan and I could foster an animal who is looking for their forever home!

I contacted ARK, an animal rescue/welfare organization about fostering a dog or cat over the holidays. And we were blessed to have a sweet miniature dachshund named Daisy come into out home! I didn't have any experience with small dogs, and Stan was new to pets all together.





Taking care of Daisy was a lot of fun and a lot of work. A few days into taking care of Daisy, we were asked to also foster her former breeding partner, Goofy (both were fixed after being rescued). We decided to take the plunge, and suddenly we had two snuggly, ridiculously sweet dachshunds running all over our apartment!

We had read up on dachshunds before Daisy's arrival, so we knew that they liked to burrow, and maybe even hide under covers. But we really weren't prepared for how hilarious a dachshund is in your bed! The first night Daisy was with us, she burrowed under the covers and then ran laps around the bed- while still under the covers! She spent the night spooning us and finding the warmest, softest spots on the bed. Once Goofy arrived, it was all-out snuggling mayhem come bedtime. Stan and I could no longer spoon each other, because the dogs were in charge!





A couple days after Goofy arrived, Daisy was adopted! I was an emotional wreck. Seriously. I was so sad! But I knew that things had happened as they should. Daisy had found a family to love and take care of her for the rest of her life! Goofy kept us busy, and I snuggled him even more. After about a week, we were able to see a picture of Daisy and her new family. It made me feel so happy to see her with them, and to know that she'd be loved.




After Daisy left, we continued enjoying our time with Goofy. I discovered all sorts of interesting things about my neighborhood while walking Goofy, like a "birds' forest" park, temples, shrines, and some interesting stairways and steep, windy roads.

Both Daisy and Goofy had severe separation anxiety, probably stemming from the traumatic years they spent with a breeder who taped their mouths shut. So, it worked out well that we fostered them at a time when we were able to spend most days at home with them. The couple of times we had to leave one of them alone, they panicked and barked for hours.

After three weeks, Goofy was scheduled to go to an adopotion event and...
He got adopted! I looooved Goofy, but it was a little easier to let go the second time. The important thing is knowing that a family had committed to love and care for little Goofy.



Our house has felt quite quiet without the little, fuzzy snugglers around. But with Stan and I both starting new jobs, the timing of Goofy's adoption was great. We are planning to foster a cat or two. So, there'll be more animal adoration pics coming in the future!

3 comments:

Shorty said...

High praise to you and Stan. Thanks for sharing yourselves with our little four legged friends.

Congrats!

lauren carroll said...

glad it worked out. i'll visit again when you're fostering a cat...and i'll never leave!! :)

Shige_d said...

Hi, Megan.
I read with interest your posting about the foster plan. I didn't know such a interesting system.
I kind of think I could understand how you felt when you had to say goodbye to them. If I were you, I would be (ToT).
Anyway, I am glad to hear that they found good families.