I was always proud of the fact that I’d never failed fostering. Granted, I’d only fostered a handful of dogs, and though I loved each one I was able to let them go to new homes. Despite living 4 hours away, we were involved with Greyhound Crossroads as much as we possibly could be. One day, word came that dogs had to be moved from JCKC as soon as possible…two of whom were offspring of our boy Champ. With foster space in short supply, we immediately offered to foster one or both of the Champ pups.

It turned out that they only needed us to take one, so we had to decide which of the two we wanted to foster. Ken wanted the small, black girl. And I’ll admit that black used to be my least favorite color of greyhound…so I said “Sure!” I knew it would be hard to let go of a Champ pup, but I thought it would be easier to let “Inky” go because I’d never been drawn to the black hounds.

When the load came in, I drove to South Carolina to pick her up. And it wasn’t love at first sight. She WAS adorable, to be sure! But I had my mind in “foster mode.” The first chink in my armor came as she roached on the way home…just like her daddy. When we got home, she ran straight into the house, went right up the stairs, jumped on the bed and looked up at me with her big brown eyes. Sigh…another chink.

Within a few days the group had pictures of all the new dogs on their website. I got an email saying that applications were coming in on “Inky” and we needed to make a decision if we wanted to keep her or adopt her out (foster homes always get first dibs on adopting their foster). Without even thinking, my fingers flew across the keyboard to respond: Mark her “Adoption Pending” to us!

My first failed foster…and what a way to fail. We renamed her Echo, as a tribute to her father. She had us wrapped around her little paw in no time. And now, of course, black is one of my favorite colors.

Adoption Day Ride Home

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