On November 1, 2008 the founder of
Home At Last Sanctuary, Inc started as a volunteer foster home. After
only a little while it was apparent there was too many dogs and cats dying when
they are abandoned or surrendered into shelters. These shelters cannot keep-up with the number of animals picked-up as strays or surrendered by families that are no longer willing or able to care for them.
Many of the dogs fostered came from shelters that euthanize animals that would otherwise make great companions because there is no room to keep them. After fostering 5 or 6 dogs we found
most people would foster one or two dogs, keep one and stop fostering. We
told the founder / president of the rescue groups we were fostering for, we
would foster 100 dogs before we kept one. Now more than three years later
we have fostered 172 dogs. Click here to see our dogs The first five or six
dogs were the hardest. The question kept coming up, "Why are we
getting our house chewed-up, peed and pooped on, lost nights of sleep, only to
make a dog a perfect pet then give it to someone else." The answer
is because they need us.
I have heard this story many times
from rescue people:
"The Starfish Story"
Original Story by: Loren Eisley
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking
something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and
the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die.”
“Son”, the man said, “don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and
hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and
threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said “I made a
difference for that one.”
One at a time when it comes to one of our companion animals at risk in a overcrowded shelter was not enough.
Home At Last Sanctuary, Inc will do
more