Another Long Overdue Update, Another Lucky Foster Adopted

Why oh why does it take me so long to share an adoption update?

Maybe it's because I don't want to get overly excited about the fact that my foster has gone to her forever...so I wait a few days for the other shoe not to drop and know the pup isn't being returned. Maybe it's because I am a little too sad to see them go to fully admit it. Or maybe I just am very untimely in my blog writing. Option 3 seems most plausible.

So, yes friends, it's been nearly a week, and I have not heard any bad news since Suga left the building and moved in with her new pack last Friday. I will be following up tomorrow to do the 1-week "how's it goin'?" checkup, but since the adopter hasn't reached out since last Saturday to send me this photo...

Day 1: she has found the bed and a friend's lead to follow

...I have to assume things are going well so far. As you can see, Suga is living with a new version of her foster brother, except he is a JRT/Beagle mix and has aboout 15 or so pounds on Ollie. Nevertheless, we were able to do a switcheroo pretty easily due to their uncanny look-alike status, and Sug (they are keeping the name!) took to him pretty much immediately. After the first day, it was reported that she was skittish but doing well overall. Taking a lot of cues for where to go/what to do from her canine brother Jack (not surprising), eating meals as normal (not surprising), taking treats from her new parents (not surprising), and going potty normally...and outside (this one was maybe a little surprising, since she went a near 2 days before she graced us with her first bathroom break on the upstairs carpet, much to my relief).

Sug's new parents, who live in a quiet North Springfield neighborhood, have a huge back yard, and with one parent who works from home, came along on April 22nd when we were hosting a rainy, yucky adoption event out in Annandale VA. They were inspired to meet Suga when they saw her Lucky Dog bio (which sort of warmed my heart, because I agonized over that bio to help speak to Suga's true personality, rather than the drama queen people meet at adoption events).



"Look lady, if you would just stop taking me to these things, I could have my Sundays back and stop having hide under cars and behind legs."



For the record, she absolutely did put on her best "sorry, I'm just not that into you show" on April 22nd, but unfortunately for Suga she had her foster daddy Nick with her, who made a point to talk all about her more awesome qualities and how her adoption event antics were nothing more than her way of stomping her feet saying she wanted to go home. Jeff and Noah were undeterred by the tail between her legs, and filled out an application. After a lovely conversation about how their older dog Shorty had passed away, and how they could tell Jack was a little lonely for a new playmate, learning about how many of Jack's personality traits mirrored those of Ollie, and how curious they were about all that Suga had to offer, it became clear to me that after some internal struggle, some light nudging from people and teasing "when are you going to keep her?" questions from my fellow volunteers and family members, and a few would-be adopters before that I didn't feel quite right about (that incidentally also ended up falling through) I was able to let her go and avoid foster failure. Bringing her to her new family was the saddest I had ever been to say good-bye, but oddly, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We came to do the home visit, and I left with the feeling she was going to a place where after the initial transition, she would be happy and doted on for many, many years.

My time with Suga was 3 months of trust building and earning. She is the first foster that I really had to work for in order to go from this...

Feb 4th on the car ride home from transport...shaking, soggy and avoiding eye contact

...to this:



April 14th adoption event: snuggle buggin', butt waggin', tap dancin' love muffin.

I'm grateful for every moment we had, and my hope is her real, true life forever continues to help her grow, love, and find adventure,trust and joy in each new day. For my part, I can say with confidence that Sug gave that to me in the 3 months we spent with each other. And, she was able to let go and move on to her next best thing in just enough time to let me recover for Pet Fiesta weekend (she told me to let our foster coordinator Kate know that she owed her one).

So fear not Lucky Bloggers. Come Sunday I will have a new four-legged little someone to write about. And your guess as to who it will be is honestly as good as mine.

Stay tuned...