Just in case someone has not heard my “puppy story”, I must share it as one of my favorite foster stories. We have been fostering since November 2002. I think it was July 2005 when we began fostering a sweet red girl named Jamie. Sometime in August, I came home from school and Jamie looked different. It just seemed like overnight, she began to sag in the middle. She went to CPH the next day and it was confirmed that she was pregnant with about 7 or 8 puppies. We decided that we would go ahead and foster Jamie and her puppies.

On Friday, September 9, Jamie went into labor around 5:00 p.m. Thanks to Lynn and Martin Briggs, we were aware of what to expect. They were so great to come and help. Jamie had the first puppy around 9:00 p.m. She had a golden baby girl who would become Wendy and Chris Ray’s sweet Marley. She then gave birth to a little black puppy that was taken to the rainbow bridge and then a big boy that became McAlister. I was really becoming very nervous when she did not have any puppies and it was approaching midnight. After calling the Vet on duty, Tim and I loaded up Jamie and her two puppies and went to the emergency pet hospital on Germantown Parkway. We were sent home around 2:00 a.m. and Jamie had to have an emergency cesarean section. We got a call at 5:00 a.m. that she had 5 more puppies. She had a golden boy that would become our Cedar and 4 solid black puppies that would become, Baxter, Gertrude, Jack, and Louie.

We fostered the puppies until November. We had lots of help from Lynn and Martin as well as my mom Pat Freels. We had a puppy room in our great room. Even though the puppies were a lot of work, it was a great experience. Of course, I got attached to all the puppies. One by one, they were all adopted. Jamie was adopted as well. Marley was adopted first and I just had to have the golden boy. Jamie was our 25th foster and we had always been so strong to let our fosters go to their forever homes, but for some reason I just had to have one the these puppies. They didn’t even look like Golden Retrievers, but they were so very special. We decided to adopt Cedar. He will always remind me of our special puppy fosters.

Now it is January 2007 and Cedar is 1 year old. We just fostered our 41st foster and once again we are foster failures. We adopted Robbie. I have loved every one of the golden fosters that have shared our home. It was never easy to see a foster go, but it is so rewarding to know that we could provide them a safe loving place to stay until their forever home was found.
 

Gerry Wartenberg