“This Holiday, open your heart and your home,
To a lonely pet from a shelter or a rescue group.”
Petfinder.com
My wife and I recently watched a new movie – A Dog Named Christmas – a Hallmark Channel presentation. It’s a heartwarming Holiday tale based on Author Greg Kincaid’s book by the same name.
When a developmentally challenged young man living on his parents’ farm learns that a local animal shelter is seeking temporary homes for its dogs during the Holidays, he knows exactly what he wants for Christmas.
His father quickly objects, but this boy’s persistence eventually wins out. And soon, his family is the short-term foster care family for a very lovable and very lonely pooch that the young man quickly names ‘Christmas.’
And now, this young man starts thinking about all the other dogs that will be forced to spend the Holidays all alone in cramped cages at that animal shelter. So, in the days that follow, this extremely compassionate boy uses his special gifts of persuasion to encourage his entire hometown to participate in the local animal shelter’s ‘Foster a Dog for Christmas Program.’
And what follows from his small act of kindness eventually teaches his entire family, and his entire rural community, all about peace on earth and goodwill towards both human beings and animals.
This movie inspired me to do even more for today’s forlorn and abandoned pets, and I remarked to my wife that it would be wonderful if this idea of fostering a lonely pet for the Holidays caught on – all around the country.
And, Lo and Behold, it already has.
Petfinder.com is an on-line, searchable, national database of adoptable pets. It’s also an animal shelter and adoption organization directory, spanning nearly 13,000 organizations across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. And, it recently announced its new national program – ‘Foster a Lonely Pet’ - inspired by this Holiday movie.
A foster home for an animal works about the same way as a foster home for a child does. It's not the same as a permanent adoption, but it does offer a temporary shelter for a very lonely adoptable dog or cat until a permanent home can be found. Petfinder's ‘Foster a Lonely Pet’ program says: "This Holiday, open your heart and your home to a pet from a shelter or a rescue group."
Although foster programs for adoptable animals are hardly new, this national effort is. Very frequently, local animal shelters search for foster homes to temporarily house animals that ‘overflow’ their tiny facilities, especially these very sad days, with the thousands and thousands of abandoned and ‘foreclosed’ pets now out there.
And although I seem to find most of my pets on the mean city streets, I’ve fostered several shelter animals over the years myself, but I have a strange tendency of keeping them. I found our little Chihuahua/Spitz mix, Chica Blanca, at a very crowded city animal shelter one day, and she quickly touched my heart, so I quickly agreed to ‘foster’ her. That was 12 years ago now.
If you’re interested in adopting a loving new pet, please take a look at Petfinder.com; it’s a very easy way to search for an adoptable animal. And, if you’re interested in fostering a pet for the Holidays, please check out their ‘Foster a Lonely Pet’ page for additional information.
There are far too many abandoned, lonely, extremely affectionate dogs and cats out there this Holiday Season; please consider becoming one of their compassionate Christmas Angels.
fee
Yes, yes and yes!
Cynthia
Anna