I accidentally fell into the rescue/fostering world. I had grown up with dogs, three St. Bernards as a kid and my parents later had a yellow lab and currently have two yellow labs. It wasn't until the beginning of 2022 that I really dived into the life of fostering and rescues - and it's been one of the more rewarding experiences thus far.

About two years after I finished grad school in 2019, one of my best friends was fostering a dog through another rescue and they needed someone to watch him over the weekend. After meeting Max (a four year old shepherd mix), we agreed to watch him for those few days. Max is and was definitely misunderstood - he was labeled "aggressive" and a "non-social" dog. He seemed to be scared and fearful of most people and other dogs. According to the rescue, Max had moved from high kill shelter to shelter, and after a year with this rescue, they weren't able to find a home for him. For whatever reason, Max felt at ease with us and what started as a weekend dog sitting stint, turned into the best 3+ years of my life so far.

As it turned out, Max had several medical issues that had been left untreated/detected for years and after spending countless months with specialty vets, we finally rid him of pain and you could see his personality finally starting to show. We decided in 2021 that we would try fostering puppies because we were ready to adopt another dog but given Max's past, we needed to make sure he was set up for success. We fostered a set of brothers through another rescue and as expected, we fell in love ended up adopting our sweet boy Deke. It was this experience that showed us that Max truly was misunderstood and needed the right environment to be his most amazing self. He was the absolute best foster brother and Deke helped bring him out of his shell and provide much needed canine companionship. They are truly the best of friends and it's been a blessing to watch.

After seeing how amazing Max was as a foster brother, we decided that when we bought a house and had the space, we would get back into fostering - which is exactly what we did in February 2022 when we became a part of the Lucky Dog family. We eased in slowly fostering a pair of sister puppies but eventually fostered a few large litters of puppies - at one point we had 7 puppies in our house! Max was, of course, the most amazing foster brother and Deke was thrilled to have small puppies to play with.

Since fostering with Lucky Dog, we have fostered over 20 puppies and dogs, and it's been the most amazing experience. It can be exhausting and heartbreaking, especially when you fall in love with your foster, but I wouldn't change it. Being able to see Max thrive and not only get along with other dogs, but engage and play with them has been an incredible experience - if you had asked me in 2019 when we first got him, I would have never thought this was possible. We of course worked with trainers and behaviorists, but it really took patience and dedication to get him to where he is today.

We thought we were done at two dogs, but after seeing an available puppy with Lucky Dog, we knew we had room for one more. In May 2022, we adopted our Lucky Dog Boone, and he's been a wonderful addition. The malinois/german shepherd is giving us a run for our money, but he definitely is the life of the party, reminding our dogs to have fun.

And if you thought we were done - we weren't! Before we had started working with Lucky Dog, we had applied to adopt a german shepherd from another rescue and on the day we were set to pick her up, they told us her owners had claimed her - it was of course bittersweet but I couldn't imagine if one of our dogs had gone missing. Well months and months later, the same rescue let us know that she had been surrendered through animal control, and they wanted to know if we would be interested in bringing her home with us. It seemed like fate and we can't say no to a rescue dog in need. She had been abused and it took several weeks for her to even understand she was allowed to play with toys. Our dogs Max, Deke and Boone took her under their wing and she has become the goodest girl ever.

And that is how we wound up with four rescue dogs. They are my greatest joy (and pains in the butt).

At the beginning of May 2022, I decided to get more involved and started my training as an Adoption Coordinator. To date, I have helped 30+ Lucky Dogs find their forever homes. I love interacting with people at the events and I love helping people find the right dog to add to their pack. Since I can't take in every rescue dog to my home, being an Adoption Coordinator has helped filled that passion. Fostering and becoming and Adoption Coordinator have been so rewarding.