The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria hopes to share a wide variety of viewpoints from all of our community through this blog, and today we are pleased to share a guest post written by one of our amazing volunteers.

I live in an apartment and work in Northern Virginia, but my home is in the Southwestern U.S. where my husband and our two beloved dogs reside.  Midas is an adorably loving and goofy four-year-old German Shepherd/Pit Bull mix who we adopted from a local shelter when he was ten months old, and Mireshka is a bossy 13-year-old rat terrier who joined our family when she was only 12 weeks.  I miss our dogs very much and I had contemplated getting a small dog in Virginia, but my job is very demanding and I frequently travel and work long hours. Despite my strong desire to have a canine companion in Virginia, I know it wouldn’t be fair to a dog to live in an apartment with no yard and be alone for 14 or more hours a day.  

So, instead of adopting of a dog who I know I don’t have the home environment for or time to spend with, I decided to volunteer at the shelter and become a sleepover foster when my schedule permits.  Fostering a dog for a sleepover, even for one or two nights, gives the dog a much needed break from the shelter, and it has the added benefit of making my weekend so much less lonely as I continue to miss my Southwestern home and family.  (Right: Skywalker enjoying a weekend picnic.)

I take great joy in planning for my foster sleepover.  Although the shelter provides all the supplies needed, I purchase special treats and plan for activities.  The first dog I fostered for a Saturday night sleepover was Dutch, who has since been adopted. I was able to learn a lot about his behavior in a home environment even in that short time, which I shared with the shelter, and who in turn shared with his prospective adoptive parents to ensure it was the right match for everyone.  (Left: Foster Dutch enjoys his weekend bed.)

For the last couple of months I have enjoyed periodic weekend sleepovers with a special dog named Skywalker, whom I called Bear because he looks like a small black bear.  Although Skywalker didn’t like to be touched, he really enjoyed his sleepovers and became familiar with my apartment, so we developed a routine. He loved walking in a nearby wooded area and sitting next to me on a blanket while we had a picnic.  He would sit contently for long periods of time on my balcony overlooking squirrels and birds in nearby trees. At night, I would move his bed from the living room to my bedroom; during his last foster visit, he got sleepy before I did and went into the bedroom and lay down on the floor where he knew his bed would be located.  And Skywalker would wait for me to wake up in the morning to take him outside by patiently sitting next to my bed and looking up at me. I hope the individual attention I provided to Skywalker helps him take a few baby steps forward, and helps the shelter to find him the right adopters so his next home is just the right fit.

I know that hosting a sleepover foster gives a dog a much needed break from the shelter and helps the AWLA to learn more about  their behavior, but I mostly enjoy the fun I get to have with my weekend companion! I may not currently be in a position to adopt a dog, but it’s nice to know that I can help even more dogs by fostering, even if only on the weekends.  (Right: Skywalker says, “The more time outside, the better!”)

Foster dog Dutch has already found his new family, but Skywalker is still looking for a special person to call his own.  To learn more about Skywalker, contact our Adoption teams at adoptions@alexandriaanimals.org or 703-746-7447.  Click here to learn more about volunteer and foster opportunities.