Travels with Sadie: She was adopted by David and Nancy Duncan from the SPCA Florida in Lakeland. The journey from shelter life to her loving forever home began with foster care.
A Foster Victory e
The goal of fostering a shelter pet is to provide a temporary foster home until a permanent home can be found. Pet foster placements are a vital part of pet advocacy, especially since many shelters have limited resources. Foster homes also allow shelters to bring in more homeless animals. And, most cats and dogs will be much happier in a home environment than a shelter, which makes them more adoptable. ‘Foster fail’ is a lighthearted
term used to describe when a foster pet parent adopts the pet they’re fostering. But, it’s not really a failure, is it?
Shady, a Labrador Ridgeback Hound mix, was the first dog Nancy and David Duncan adopted from the SPCA Florida in Lakeland. The couple took Shady almost everywhere on their travels. After Shady passed away suddenly, understandably there was a huge void, but the couple wanted to wait before bringing another dog into the family. It just seemed the right thing to do. A year or so later, the Duncans, who
have been longtime supporters of the SPCA Florida, hinted to Mary Stephens, a founding member of the shelter, that they might be ready to adopt another dog. It was around February 2020. Mary began sending the couple photos, gently weighing in on their interest of each adoptable dog. It was the soulful look in the eyes of one dog that finally grabbed their attention. Sadie, a Jack Russell Terrier mix, was in quarantine with pneumonia, and was not yet available for adoption. Then, the Governor ordered the state-
shutdown, and shelters scrambled to find foster homes for all of their animals. Mary called Nancy on the hope they would foster Sadie, who had made it through quarantine. On the morning of the day Nancy and David picked up Sadie, she had been spayed. “Poor thing,” said Nancy. “She was a
bit unsteady from the antibiotics and pain meds.”
44 THE NEW BARKER
by Anna Cooke Sadie had her priorities and immedi-
ately made them known, especially about furniture, in particular, the humans’ bed. As soon as they arrived home, Sadie
ran into the bedroom, jumped on the cou- ple’s bed and dove into the pillows as if to announce, ‘I’m home!’ The soft side kennel purchased just for
Sadie went unused. “We naively thought we could eventually train her to sleep on the floor,” said Nancy. “Little by little Sadie won. She now sleeps on my side of the bed.” “What’s really funny,” added David,
“Her breed has a propensity to dig. Sadie likes to burrow under the covers and that’s where she sleeps.” The original foster plan for Sadie was
to stay with the Duncans for a week while she healed from her surgery. “That was the plan, anyway,” said
Nancy. “It was not very long into her stay with us that we decided to keep her.” The couple traveled with Sadie
between their Lakeland home and their beach house in Palm Island. “We noticed how very adaptable she was to a change in environment,” said David. Where Shady had always been a
nervous sort of traveler, Sadie has been game for anything, quickly settling for a nap once the trip is underway, be it by car, boat or plane.
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