worked for a short time at the humane society and i thought i can do much better than this so i spun off and did we formed angels for animals and we're just a small group of people that take dogs in the need  has come down over the years to small dogs now because the gentleman i had fostering the larger dogs he died last spring so i can't have big dogs right now so we take the smaller dogs we get them ready for adoption and then we we are on petfinder dot com under angels for animals in eighty four pennsylvania and we try to get them adopted from there but we do all the vet work up front we try to rehabilitate and try to socialize and get ready for a new home ok in today's topic actually with we're going to discuss is this fostering foster care because you don't have a facility other than your home and you usually have five or six dogs at your place that you're  your housing yes and taking care of and then you find people that have the ability and the willingness to take in a on a temporary basis which isn't easy to do because you fall in love with these dogs but to take them in and basically board them and help train them and take care of them until that permanent home is found that's right so what's required just to be a foster care home the first thing you really have to have a really strong desire to do this because it is not easy we pay for all of the medical expenses we pay for the food you supply the home and hopefully some of the training we have to work on the house training the socialization and all that kind of thing so the very first thing if you call me the very first thing i'm going to ask you do you have a fenced in yard and it has to be a secure fenced because some of the smaller dogs can't get through a three inch space so it has to be something that's going to be secure and down to the ground so they cannot escape so that's one requirement that's the very first important requirement was the second one you have to have the time to do this it does take a lot of time if you work a normal day i'd say would really have to look at that because you have to spend time with the dog you have to train a dog we would look very closely at the family if there are any small children we would not allow you to foster and the reason being little kids tend to and they don't mean to do this is just how little kids are poor on the dog's tail pull on the dog's ear they run after it like they think it's a toy and that's not good because some dogs will get vicious because they don't know that these children are playing so they look at that in a different way so you have to have that time and if you work all the time and that's not such a good thing first thing is your husband if you have one has to be on board with this because it is going to be the both of you although normally the lady in the family does most of the work to be honest with you and like i said the children are concerned so there was never a problem with you in peace and no i never worried whether pete was going to be impeached just as i was but you never worried whether people is on board use very good animals you know but the trick there is to say because normally i keep the ones that have medical problems and there will be a lot of time i have to put into these animals plus expenses as far as  medicine and going to the vet and correcting whatever the medical problem is and if we can't corrected to the point where we can adopt the animal out of in chile i end up keeping it so at one time i had nine at one time now i'm down to five so then if that all falls into word should be the level that we wanted that then i wouldn't go to your home and do an inspection of the home the art and everything like that and then probably i would give you an animal the didn't need a lot of work just to get use through the transition to understand what has to happen when all this takes place and like you mentioned to we do have foster failures people that will get attached to the dogs and they will keep them that's ok that's a point that's not really a failure though but what we call the foster fail yeah yeah because i think that dog has found a loving home true but our main goal is to find a dog a permanent home where it will have a life because a lot of those we get do not or have never had a life as we know so you're getting dogs that are from puppy mills you're getting dogs for breeders breeders that the can't sell the dog or does the dog may have a problem a nobody want to buy the dog you're getting dogs from people that lost the house and i can keep them or became ill and right up in a convalescent home  had to give up their animal rights or you get a variety of dogs from a very in a variety of different situation sometimes we take dogs from animal control i've done that over the years when i've had a situation and i've actually over the years had five of what i call jesse's dogs from that they were the greatest dogs i have lost to last year they were fifteen and a half and almost sixteen and i still have tucker and abby which i got from you and the greatest dogs in the world now and they are people don't understand and the other thing i'd like to mention to people should think about taking a senior dog any dog that's like six and up but they look on that like oh that dog's going to die tomorrow and i always tell them we're all going to die but they need a home they need a place to be for those senior years you know yeah like people sometimes they're the best ones oh they sure are now and they generally don't need so much of an integration you know you know they've had a little more experience and some of those dogs have been given up two or three times yes and the problem with that is if you adopt a dog from a shelter and you take that dog back the very worst thing that you could say the dog bit somebody whether the dog did or not but a lot of people will say that because they want to be rid of the dog but they don't understand that is a death sentence to the dog because that shelter doesn't have the time nor the money to put in that dog to correct whatever's going on if the dog bit and they figure that's an excuse i can be rid of the dog but that's that's wrong it's wrong so when you give a dog up for for this fostering to the foster care people how long do you expect those people to have and how long they expect them to say average is about two months because we do put them on pet finder we do actively try to find them homes we do a lot of screening talking to a lot of people i've had a very tough year this past year that i have not had the people calling i don't know how to say this th they either didn't know about dogs they didn't know how to train them they didn't want to take the time to do that and it was just like they thought it would be just a really easy thing but it is a it's work and you have to put the time into it and you have to understand that animal has feelings just like you have so you know and you know there's and they have problems and you have to work through that so now that you scared everybody off from one kind of foster care home it's not as hard as you're describing no yes no if you truly love animals you can work through these things but you have to know upfront that's a possibility you know so when you say we supply the food and we supply that's really just supplying the food and jesse supplying the medical costs and so forth so how does jesse fun angels for animals well we we do charge a fee for each dog that we adopt and into that we build in a little bit to do the next dog because the next dog might need a dental the next dog might need more medication and to walk into any of the specialty vet's office is today it's one hundred dollars just walk in the door call and say well why do i have to pay for a rescue dog i said because i have to pay the vet and they'll say oh you mean i don't work for free no work for free sorry so but we do we spare neuter we make sure the shots are up to date we wormed them and we treat them for ear mites that's absolutely what we do first and then we put them in the foster homes try to get them socialized potty trained but understand that even though the dog is coming along on the potty training it's going to be moving to a new situation so you always have to keep in mind that a lot of these dogs especially the ones we get floor because they ran to it to you of regardless of what it was you know and it took them long but it took them a little time to learn that they were getting a bowl of food and it was theirs and you know and they were you know i had six  dogs at the time and they integrated really well i mean it's they were the hardest dogs i've ever had to integrate i have to say you know but they were the most well not the most loving they're all my docs and a few pretty loving but they were very loving dogs you can tell pre know and a lot of times being in a kennel the dogs don't get enough water and that's the other thing we check when they come if they sing like a lot of them have a but they get within you unary track and induction and you're in their track we started on a cranberry right away and in ten days and with enough water it seems to clear the situation and while we're talking about waters talk about not feeding you're giving your dog tap water to drink tap water that contains fluoride and chlorine and whatever else is in there of the full pinion that you should always give your dog bottled water and the bottle was not be distilled water it should be either spring water or filtered water but not distilled and why is that because this still is minus of everything so it's like drinking battery acid so the minute you ingest that that is pulling that all your minerals that are in your cells and bones and or distilled water but you don't give that on a daily basis because then you depleting the nutrients that the body needs that applies to yourself as well you know we have talked about food for animals and food for people and it's the same thing you have to think quality for your animal also you cannot feed them junk and expect them to do well and that's a hard thing to overcome because there's a cost factor and there's a way that food is manufactured so so we can address that well you bring that up just a dog should never have any type of green whatsoever so any kibble that's going to have some form of grain in there if it doesn't have grain in there and they'll say grain free they're go lentils and beings and he pees and all and rice and things like that but in fact what ends up happening is it may say grain free but it's forty percent sugar and your animal your dog cannot consume sugar as noble nutrient requirement for sugar and so you think you're doing your dog a favor by saying grain free of course we shouldn't give a dog grain they can't process it and all of a sudden now we're given this kibble that has to be made with either grain or starch sugar and you're giving half of the food is sugar which causes all kinds of problems and you wonder why diabetes is the number one issue with dogs second issue being cancer because what or what is cancer live off of sugar you know so carbohydrates so it really is an issue and it's an i'm talked about issue well when people call me that's one of the first questions i say what kind of food are you feeding your dog now and then we go into that whole discussion and there again this past year i've had more people call and say their dog died from cancer yeah and the very first thing i'll say to them what kind of food did you feed that dog and a lot ninety percent of it is junk you can't fault the owner though because the owner is going to the pet stores or are listening to advertise once on t v or w radio or whatever and they have these pretty packaging with all these corn and whatever else on the you want to eat the bag and i you know have the luxury across this country and i start off talking about dog food i'll say hold up a dog food package and say the  container has probably more nutrition and less detrimental things than the food right because the food is junk yet it's pricey and it's ever ties like it's the best thing in the world right and then you add g m o's to that and you add an hormone the whole thing is messed up right and so what do we do jess well you have always told me that the best diet for a dog is meat and dogs are carnivores directly so but you have to look for the good stuff i mean you can't well you know of course money is a factor just you know but dogs have tearing teeth only and their test will track is designed to process meat and not design the process any form or grains are not designed to handle sugar they're not designed corn or rice so what happens over here is you always try to look at the best product that you can afford to buy so you can really get down to the nitty gritty meat should be grass fed free range as beef beef or for grass fred free range chickens or grass fed free range eggs from those two things like that when you start going in to like how dog food is manufactured dog food a cow can die in a field and it's by law not permitted to enter into the human food supply however in animal feed and food for animals is not considered food is considered to feed so animal feed that dead cow could lay in a field for a week and be harvested and brought in and processed and be put in your dog food scary yes that that we always had these by products well those are things that are not in the human human or shouldn't be in the human food supply and aren't by law but they end up into the animals and they're supplying no nutrition whatsoever for the animal you know somebody explain that byproduct thing to me one time and they said it's the beak feet and feathers and internals of other animals that they grind up and put in there including and to the veterinarians that euthanize dogs and pick up those carcasses and actually process those at a rendering plant where it ended up in that i think is is not a major factor anymore although you know i don't know for certain how much of it is another issue is all these restaurants that we have million restaurants on every corner very every street anymore they use facts right yes and they process the when they're done cooking with those fats and they have to get rid of them they put them in a bear out side the back of their place and then a rendering company comes and and picks those fats up and they're taken to a rendering plant and they're rancid and so forth and then they're put on or into the dog food so they make a kibble and the kibble comes out of the processor and what happens is they have to spray the they use this fat the spray to hold on any flavorings or hold on any any any of the minerals or so forth the minute minerals that they put on in there it's rancid fat and it's poison there are more studies actually jazz that you can get bacterial infections by handling dry dog food than and people say well gee like you said the price of stuff like that but i always tell them you actually feed the dog less because it's better they poop less because their body will use what you feed them and you don't take them to the vet as often that's exactly if you anything at one way or another right you're the paying it to the veterinarian and have the emotions in and the all that goes along with a sick animal or dying animal or you or you try to support the body and the body do what it's supposed to do yeah that's absolutely the case ok now look her and you're my foster home and you have one of my dogs now the next step to that whole process is we're we're screening and interviewing people and seeing where this dog is going to fit in or if it's going to fit in and you as the foster home have the ability to go with me or the boss the one of the other people and we get to meet everybody if they have another dog we see if they get along we do a process but you have the final word because you have to have the dog you know it's personality you know what you feed it you know how far you've gone with the house breaking and we sit and talk to these people we do this whole thing and if you say to me i don't think this is the right home for this dog we pick up and we leave but if they decide you say well the dog might have a chance here and we say ok they do sign a contract a legal contract the contract states they get a trial period which is normally two weeks but actually i have extended that to three months to one gentleman because he didn't think the dog was going to work and the dog had come from a private home and i said this dog absolutely worked for you well i gave him three months and three months to the day he called me he cried on the phone and he said this is the best dog ever had and just this year he called me and said the dog had died and he went to thank me so that's kind of the process and it's like i said it's not an easy process because and a lot of times we cry when we because you really get attached to the dog you do know your heart is one of your family you know but basically that's what it is and like i said it's not easy to be a foster home because there are a lot of things you have to detach yourself from and even when i started peter said to me well you know you can't save them all and i said yeah you can't save more so i had a talk with me said ok what are you do here so i decided the best thing to do would be to find a permanent home for that animal where they can enjoy life and have a life and i would keep the ones that i know wouldn't go very far nobody would take care up so over the twenty some years that i've been doing this that seems to work pretty  good you know but it is a lot of work there's no question about as a lot of responsibility yes it is becomes a little more difficult to travel yes if somebody is to support you if you have to go places right you know every decision you make is is how it impacts that animal right and that's the other thing too that you just mentioned that you have to be home a lot in order to take care of that animal animal because that animal is just like one of your children you wouldn't leave it alone at home and most of these dogs we do not create because the been in a crate or in a confined situation all their life so we try not to do that where we can now there are some situations where you do have to do that so it is a big responsibility and if the dog has to go to the vet i rely on you if i can't take the dog you can take it although every you don't have to pay anything you know you go under in under my name so that works for a lot of people but then there are a few people to the faith i'll pay for this one or whatever so i'm here in if they contact me i can tell what are what other things we have and you do the i collect aluminum case which is basically pop in beer cans and catholic cans and then i take them to the  anything again sometimes people will give me things when their dogs die like sometimes we can use some of the medications they were on or a bed but i never take food because of what we discussed about the food and of course money but i don't get very much money because i'm not big there's only probably four or five of us anymore the do this you know so if i wanted to foster be a foster home for angel scrambles i just give jessie a call yes and then you come and check  contract states at least two weeks people have called me after two days and said we're keeping the dog and said no you still have two weeks yeah she just is not a joke is she she's not talking about a verbal contract she makes you sign a form a legal form yeah yeah yeah it's worked so far it's worked you know and if at any time you can't keep the animal you sick you move whatever we take the dog back yet you don't want the dog going to some some other rescue place or some facility wanted coming  you how many times it happened well more often than you would actually think probably a year ago we took a dog back that had been adopted ten years but the lady had a very severe heart problem and she would pass out literally just passed out so she called us we took the dog back in the lady the foster the dog ended up keeping it but the dog was ten years old and you get puppies are always we do once in a while get puppies yes but more it's probably and there are a few other small breeds that i know you had a few doctors over the past because i think i ended up with them yes we did and i'm partial were you know i was raised with roxy so that's it was it easy match but you know and they all i say all been great their mendus dogs absolutely tremendous dogs and people don't understand that a rescue dog is a wonderful dog because he never have home and i have you and you have some horror stories because i've heard th neglect and so forth and these dogs really appreciate when they're taken and they know they're loved and wanted yes they do and they've witnessed the experience not being wanted and loved right now so they pick up real quick on the change yes  o anything else you want to bring up there just on oh i don't know i think i pretty well covered everything ok well just for jessie clubs like from angels for animals she needs your help the dogs need your help