When I first mentioned my intention to start fostering dogs, most of my friends and family thought I’d find it impossible to give them up. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive myself but it was something I really wanted to do.
After a successful home check, En Route got in touch to say there was a dog at the pound if I wanted to meet him. As I arrived at reception a little dog popped his head round the door, followed some time after by his tail – he had somewhat unusual dimensions! Otto was an ex chasse hound, part dachshund and part something else and about 4 years old.
He settled in pretty quickly considering he’d never lived in a house before and the sofa became his favourite spot. He was a little distant at first but after watching our two dogs getting cuddles he turned into quite the lap dog. He was house trained in a couple of days, most chasse dogs keep their cages clean and so Otto learned very quickly to use only the garden.
Being a chasse dog Otto was very much led by his nose and we soon discovered that the garden that was secure enough to keep our lurchers in was definitely not secure enough for a determined little teckel. Where’s Otto? became a familiar refrain in our house, closely followed by running around the village looking for him. Luckily our village isn’t very busy but it was always quite stressful until we found him. On the few occasions we couldn’t find him he always came back – a little scratched and tired but fine. We Just learned to adapt. Making sure we knew where he was before we opened any external doors, watching as he tested the fence and intercepting him before he could get away and then plugging the gap. We made sure there were lots of fun things to do in the garden, played lots of games with him and took him for long walks so he didn’t feel the need to keep running away.
Otto was with us for about 6 weeks when he found his forever family. Although there were tears I was surprised how well I took his leaving, his new family clearly loved him and the regular updates they sent me showed how happy he was with them. A few weeks later and our second foster arrived.
If you think you have room in your life and heart to help a dog find its forever home then please get in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you.