We have many special foster families but this week we want to celebrate Alicia Brigode and Josh Daniels. This young couple has been fostering now for years, and they always say yes! We ask them to take a dog, a puppy or kittens and they always show up with huge smiles and they never, ever complain. They are warm, kind and incredible human beings.
They began fostering dogs for us, they have amazing and social pets at home that get along great with other pets. Then we threw in puppies. Now they help with a lot of medical cases. Recently they cared for a male pup with a broken leg that needed a place to heal, then they took on a puppy that needed long term care for skin issues. The typical answers I get when I ask Alicia to foster are, “We can! When do you want us to pick him up?” or “Absolutely!” or my favorite, “Ummmm…YES!!!”
We asked Alicia to write about what fostering means to them:
“When we tell people that we foster, typically the first question is “how….” When we were asked to write something about fostering, it was overwhelming. But we’re here to answer the “how” question. The love of giving an animal a better chance at life is something that Josh and I have had in common since we met. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve jumped out of our car trying to save turtles, snakes, loose dogs, horses, and birds. If you can relate, keep reading! The feeling you get from potentially saving an animal’s life is comparable to winning an award. Once you get back in your car from doing your “good deed” you feel amazing, and the animal goes back to where it belongs.
“Fostering gives us that feeling. We love and care for every animal like our own. When it’s time to give them back, it is a bittersweet goodbye (and a total tearjerker sometimes). We’ve had dogs that we wish we’d kept, but a lot of times we reach out to our community and try to find them the perfect home. Mostly, because we want to visit them in the future! I could go on and on. If you have a gift of loving and letting go, foster. If you have the time and resources, foster. If you have a knack for training dogs, foster. For the love of dogs, foster. If you ask us “how,” the feeling we get from being the bridge between a shelter and forever home is a bittersweet blessing.”
We would love to clone Alicia and Josh but instead we are hoping that their words inspire others to help. That their experiences convince citizens to say, “Yes” to helping a homeless animal find a happy resting spot on their way to their forever home.
FOTAS provides anything you need when you foster. The pets just need a safe place to receive love and care for a short time and even long-term medical needs.
Their lives are in our hands.
By Kathy Cagle, FOTAS Programs Coordinator
