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Volunteers and Foster Homes
Written By: Kathleen Bub - Forever Farm | Issue: 2016/03 - March
Friends for Life has a great need for volunteers at our sanctuary for senior and special needs animals, the Forever Farm, and at our facility for nursing care and Hospice, the Pickelsimer Center.
Walking dogs, brushing cats, and simple one-on-one attention can mean the world to these animals. If you ask some of our volunteers, you’ll hear that it means a great deal to them as well. Connections are made that sometime result in fostering, or even adoption.
Fostering is also a great program used by many rescues in order to expand their ability to help more animals. It is a little more difficult for us because of the types of animals we rescue. “Special needs” animals will often come with medical, physical, and behavioral issues that many folks do not feel comfortable dealing with. Rarely do we find someone willing to take on such a task.
We recently took in a very special dog named Ackley. He is an eight-year old Parsons Jack Russell that has been blind for the last few years. We chose to bring him in to our nursing care facility to assess his issues, feeling that the high activity level at the Forever Farm would be very disturbing for him. Even with the relative calm at the Pickelsimer Center, Ackley suffered terribly from separation anxiety, having lost the home he grew up in, and without the sense of sight to help him adjust. Medication was used to help reduce the anxiety, but he was still finding life quite stressful.
Along came one of our dedicated volunteers who regularly spends time with the dogs at the Forever Farm. Robin Hughes has done fostering for other organizations, and we approached her about taking Ackley into her home to give him the environment that he needed to adjust to his new life. Robin and her husband John, agreed to give it a try. In my estimation, their selfless compassion saved Ackley’s life. He is no longer the highly agitated, painfully distressed dog that first came to us. We can only hope that other folks will also consider helping by fostering a special needs dog or cat.
Friends for Life is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization that specializes in helping senior and special needs dogs, cats and horses. Please call (828)508-2460 for information, or go to our website at www.friendsforlifeforeverfarm.org.
