The Story of Foster Buddy

NEBTR has many members who peruse the Internet, papers, and any other avenues of information looking for bostons that have either been surrendered by their owners, found as strays, or seized from otherwise deplorable living conditions. That is how we found Buddy.

Buddy was my first foster who was found in a shelter in Farmington, WV in January of this year. The shelter was running only able to keep enough heat in the kennels to keep the water from freezing, and even though they gave Buddy a nice bed and a blanket, he was quite honestly freezing. Bostons have very short coats, and chill very easily, and we knew we had to step in and help this lil' guy find his new forever home.

His journey started when I was asked to take him in and get all of his medical issues looked at by a vet, and to help him interact in a new family setting. I first picked Buddy up from his transport carrier in Zelienople PA; he was a stocky built, muscular boston that looked like Goliath compared to my own little boston who was ten pounds lighter than he was.

I anticipated that he might fuss on the ride home, He didn't make a peep. I thought he would be frightened of our other pets when we arrived  home. He loved them. I thought he would be lonely or sad the first  night in a strange place. He slept like a baby. So I thought I was going  down easy street. Well lets just say easy street had a couple pot holes.

We don't know how, but something happened to him prior to his  rescue that ended up with him having one of his toe nails de-gloved.  The nail was completely ripped off and the nail bed and nerves were  exposed and likely would have caused an infection. The vet was very  helpful by telling me that the only thing they could do was to sedate  him and put super glue over the injury to guard it. He said it would  be better for him not to have to go through the sedation and would  save our rescue some funds if I could try to do this myself. I thought  Buddy would have a fit because it was so sore, but my daughter held  him snuggled him, and talked softly to him while I just dripped a few drops where it needed to be. Buddy never flinched.

At Buddy's vet exam, they found that he had a slight heart murmur that was not something to be overly concerned about at the moment,  but we needed to know so that if he ever has an infection a vet ca administer antibiotics so that it didn't settle into the weakened part of  his heart. He also found that Buddy did not have good dental care and  had two abcessed teeth, and two small bumps on his left eye and one on his right, but they were not interferring with his vision. He was put on an antibiotic, and was scheduled for his neutering on Feb. 15th, where at the same time they removed his abcessed teeth.

We had Buddy as part of our family for two months, and he showed  me that every single worry I had about a fostering was unfounded. He was the perfect first foster. The only issue was that he had some food
aggression around other dogs, but I expected something like that because his owners who surrendered him told the shelter that he didn't want  to share his food with the rottweiler they had brought home, and that
was why they gave him up after 7 yrs. I can't even imagine that reasoning.

Well all good stories have a happy ending and so does Buddy's. He was adopted by a couple from Waynesboro PA on February 19th, and he is now enjoying a life where he has his humans all to himself, and
has nothing but a life filled with love and compassion. It was hard to see him go, and we do miss him, but he opened the door for us to know  that there are so many more dogs out there who need rescued, and
we are all to happy to answer the call.

We had Buddy for a couple of months, but it wouldn't have mattered if I had only had him for an hour; we love him as much as our own.  Needless to say, it did hurt to see him go, but I doled out lots of extra attention to my own Boston an Goldens, and kept reminding myself that there is another out there who needs me to do the same for him or her as I did for Buddy. 

-- Penny Stroup