A Dog Bed for a Guest Dog

Every now and again I get called to 揹og-sit?my friends?dogs while they go on vacation. Even more frequently, I get a call to foster dogs that need a temporary home because of certain conditions. The local animal shelter that I work with, and volunteer at, sometimes needs foster parents for individual dogs in need. Very often, dogs that have tested positive for heartworm, require extra medical and emotional attention in to beat their disease. Other times, dogs have skin conditions, and they need extra medical care to get rid of their ailments. Some dogs are pregnant and need a friend to help them during and throughout the end of pregnancy and delivery and to assist with caring for the little ones. Sometimes puppies need a surrogate mother to take care of them, until they grow and are ready for adoption.

When these precious guests are in my house for the reasons mentioned above, I need to be prepared and my house needs to be prepared accordingly.

Over time, I stopped using the rags that they gave me at the shelter and started using several dog beds that belonged to my dog before, or just cheap dog beds that I bought for this purpose. By all means, these dog beds are nothing fancy, but they are more comfortable than a rag.

I make sure to place the dog bed for a new guest not far from my bed, since my guest dogs are extremely insecure at first, and I try to accommodate them. Many times regardless of their size, they might try to climb up to my bed, but I return them to their new temporary bed.

Each dog bed that I use for my fostered dogs is easily washable, or the cover is removable, because many of these dogs don抰 have good hygiene habits. Well, that抯 not entirely accurate - when foster dogs come into my home, they are scared, confused and insecure, and they also don抰 have any of my dog抯 ritual habits, so accidents may occur. I keep dog beds in different sizes, so that I can accommodate each guest dog抯 specific needs.

During the course of fostering, slowly but surely, I see how they rejuvenate, revive and come back to life, gaining confidence and trust in life again. At that point, I know that very soon they will be on their way to a new life, and I always pray that their new one will be much better than the one previous.