Kathy Callahan is a certified professional dog trainer (CPDT-KA) living in Alexandria, Virginia. She loves to coach people and their puppies into a great pack life. Her family continues to foster puppies amid their own furry pack. More information at www.PuppyPicks.com.
What has surprised you about fostering?
I’ve been amazed at how intense and rewarding the human connection part is. I had no idea people would be opening up and crying in my kitchen as part of puppy adoption. I had no idea this would be a new way for me to get to know people, get to love people. I never imagined that eventually every trip for groceries would end up with me feeling like the village grandma, with otherwise-shy kids coming up to me and asking about my latest pups or dads giving me updates on the pup I gave them. It’s a wonderfully positive way to interact with people.
Have you kept any of your fosters?
Despite an original pledge never to adopt one of our own fosters (we thought that might turn the whole fostering experience into a roller coaster) we have two “foster fails.” (That’s what they’re called when you fail to adopt them out and end up keeping them. Yes, it happens so often there’s a name for it!) While we’ve successfully been able to say goodbye to 150+ puppies, it was two of the moms who we just couldn’t let go.
While your stories all eventually have a happy ending, there’s often some drama on the way. (There are teary places in this book!) Are you scared of whatever the next challenge will be?
Truly I think the fact that these pups have been on the edge in some way ends up adding to the depth and satisfaction of the experience. Feeling that worry, not seeing a way through, and then suddenly having things resolve beautifully has become the norm. So honestly at this point when something scary rears its head I now just put one foot in front of the other while knowing something’s going to work out even if I can’t see it yet.
You could do lots of other things. (Get a big job outside the home, for example!) Does it ever seem silly you spend your days picking up poop?
In the beginning that would occur to me from time to time. Now it is utterly clear to me that this whole shebang is my highest and best use, and I am overwhelmingly grateful to have landed here. (Plus, the volunteer aspect of this — the fostering — has led to an obsession with understanding dog behavior, which has turned into a qualification as a dog trainer, which means I can now earn actual money by talking to people about their dogs. How great is that?)
But in the end, fostering dogs is a bit like being a mom. There’s a lot of low-skill work involved, but it’s in combination with what I personally feel is the highest skill work around.
How in the world do you give these beloved puppies up?
For the first year or so, I cried the night before each adoption. I felt sick to my stomach for days, just thinking of that now-bewildered pup in his strange new surroundings. But then something amazing happens: photos start showing up around Day 3. That little pup we thought was so incredibly attached to us is 100% thriving already in his real “forever” pack. It has been driven home to me on some cellular level that our house is just the way station. They’re meant to go on.
Do you have a favorite puppy?
We truly love them all. But … there’s a thing we call LPS. Last Puppy Syndrome. That’s when for whatever reason there’s a pup who wasn’t picked first or second… or even 8th! When the littermates are all gone, we pull that last one into our pack — no more basement puppy den — and sure enough that one suddenly blossoms and it becomes clear that that pup was the extraordinary one all along. 🙂 Happens every time.
Was there ever a puppy you didn’t like?
Nope. My husband Tom and I have a little joke (you know, those dumb married jokes): “Wow. It’s another really good one.”
Have any of your adoptions not worked out?
Two! But in both cases after the initial adoption didn’t work out, it just meant a bit of a delay getting to the true right match.
How is it that all of these dogs get along with your dogs and cats?
It’s magic! Honestly, it’s amazing, and very special to watch. We have a very grounded, trusting, generous pack. I thought for sure especially fostering nursing moms (famous for being, well, bitches) that we’d have issues. But every single mom has chosen to come upstairs and hang with our pack instead of sequestering away with her pups.
How do you decide which fosters to take?
All of us who foster get pleas via email. Typically, I’ll know I’m too busy and should wait, and I’ll pass by a bunch of emails, and then there’ll be that one photo and I immediately shoot back a “That one’s mine!” You just have a feeling.
What are your sweetest fostering memories?
· Watching our dogs welcome foster after foster, and knowing that they understand exactly what we’re doing. Especially in foster mama Mojo’s case it was beautiful: She barked her head off that first greeting, very threateningly, and in response our dogs Eli, Rocket and Nala just put out the calmest, most Zen vibe. “It’s okay. We know. You’ll see.” And of course, Mojo did see. (And now she’s a Callahan.)
· Waking up to see our kitty Bo and foster puppy Coye … well … making out.
· Waking up and driving with my husband Tom at 2am on our 22nd anniversary to make a 5am pick-up of a mama and four babies from Tennessee. Thermos of coffee, tunes in our giant van, laughter at the odd things we think are fun.
· Seeing Puffin open his eyes for the first time. (His litter was born on our couch.)
· Realizing that I could comfort little 4-week-old Aspen, who had terrible tummy cramps that made him cry and cry, by rocking him. I’d hold him just like a baby, swinging back and forth, talking to him, and he’d immediately quiet down, gazing into my eyes the whole time.
· Realizing that Tiny Todd’s sweet brothers were finding ways to include that dear little pup born with challenges that made him unable to play the regular ways.
· Very ill 3-week-old Kenai — eyes not even open yet — popping up in the box at the vet’s office, showing she may not be at death’s door after all.
· Lying around in the puppy den with warm puppies nestled into every nook and cranny, listening to little puppy noises, breathing in that puppy breath.
· The folder I have in my “in-box” where I keep the emails that say “we love her so much” and “can’t imagine life without him.” They come weeks, months, and years after adoption. They’re filled with photos of my beloved fosters draped on their people.
101 Rescue Puppies: One Family’s Story of Fostering Dogs, Love, and Trust
By Kathy Callahan
Pub date: September 29, 2020
Price: $18.95 * Pages: 160 * Full Color Photographs
ISBN: 978-1-60868-656-8
Category: Dogs
Author: Bliss
Dedicated to making a positive difference for people, animals, and this beautiful planet!
