This blog is the start of a new direction. It's a concrete step away from academia towards something more, something real and meaningful. I began my doctoral studies in economics at George Mason University in August 2009. I was bright-eyed, fully funded, and ready to take academia by storm. My life was going to be an ever exciting whirlwind of discourse and ideas, or so I thought...
I have always loved animals. I grew up in a household filled with dogs, cats, and horses. A house without animals and a dusting of fur as decoration has always been a foreign concept to me. I was the little girl in pigtails that was constantly bringing home stray cats and sneaking out food to them in my playhouse. I took agriculture so that I could pet pigs, walk goats, and coo with birds on my shoulders. Plants, well... I've never had much luck there.
The first thing I did when I moved out on my own was adopt a dog. I walked into a crowded rural shelter and saw a single puppy in the lobby. Her hair was all splotchy and she was recovering from mange, but her eyes sparkled. She gave a little woof in my direction and I knew that this little one was supposed to be my dog. I went straight to the front desk, filled out the paperwork, and away we went. I named her Mamah (pronounced MAY-MA) after Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress, a spunky woman full of life. She has more than lived up to her name and, though a stinker, is truly the love of my life.
Shortly after I started graduate school, I came upon one of Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation's weekly Petsmart adoption events on a Friday evening. Mamah loves other dogs so we walked around meeting everyone. I started talking to one of the volunteers about her foster dog and decided to fill out an application and give it a shot. LDCRF was different than any of the other rescues that I had experienced. They are the "people-friendly" rescue. They want you to go home with a dog that fits your lifestyle and they don't discard people without fenced yards. It was refreshing since finding Mamah as an apartment dweller had been such a difficult task. I filled out a foster form the same night and the next weekend I picked up my very first foster dog.
Pearl was a very shy hound with a perfect little diamond on the top of her head. She had been with LDCRF for over two years and was in desperate need of an advocate in her corner.
We went to an adoption event every weekend for two months. It was always the same, Pearl would sit on my lap pretending to be a giant lap dog and people would ask me "Why does she look so sad?" and tell me "Well, she doesn't seem to like me.." before they moved on to a bouncing happy dog. I started posting pictures of our adventures and her cuteness on her bio page and the emails poured in. Pearl was soon adopted by the most wonderful family. I cried and cried... and cried some more, but then I got an email with the picture below saying that Pearl was home and how much they loved her. So I bucked up and picked out my second foster, and then my third... Two years later, I have had thirty-two foster dogs and counting, most of them very shy, even feral, and special needs long-timers.
At first, I simply updated the bios to show off each dog's unique personality and list desirable things like housetraining, crate training, and basic commands. I always added a Picasa photo slideshow, which I updated frequently with new pictures. Dogs that had been sitting at the ranch with no interest for years started getting adopted after a week or two of being in foster care. In fact, many times there would be multiple families interested in them! These once "throw away" dogs were suddenly in high demand. Why? Because they stood out and adopters were able to get a glimpse of their personalities at home. They got to see the dog they could have with some patience and extra love. Eventually, I started adding YouTube videos and finally I began creating individual blogs for each of my shy foster dogs. Here are some example foster dog blogs: Greta, Pebbles, Margarita, Laura, Monkey, Deena, and Buster.
I also started fostering litters of kittens as well during this busy busy kitten season. Here are their blogs: the Chapman Clan and the Lucky Charms.
Every one of my adopters have told me that the blog sold them on my foster. They felt like they knew the dogs before they met them and they could see the potential, rather than the shaking pup at an adoption event. Social media like blogs and Facebook pages offer so many wonderful tools to increase adoptions and decrease euthanasia. Lets face it. If you aren't online, then you don't exist. In order to get more dogs and cats adopted, rescues and shelters need a social media presence or at the very least good pictures and a bio on petfinder.com.
I still plan to complete my dissertation and receive my PhD in economics next year, but my goals have changed. My new mission in life is to merge my economic research in social network theory and my experiences as a volunteer and foster at LDCRF in order to increase adoptions at local shelters and educate the community in order to advance animal welfare campaigns. By establishing a social media presence, I am confident that even more dogs and cats will find loving homes. My hope is that this experience will be the start of my new path, not as an academic, but as an animal advocate.
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