Ren had been at the shelter for 8 months and was starting to shut down and was not a happy dog. As an HSHV volunteer dog walker and foster, I convinced my husband to bring Ren for a short shelter break. That break turned into an eight month foster.

It took Ren over a week to decompress from being in the shelter environment. Then it took about another three weeks for him to settle in and adjust to our home routine. We slowly introduced him to our HSHV alum dog Maddie (who is dog selective) by doing “buddy walks” and letting them see each other through gates in the house.

After eight months of fostering Ren, my husband, Maddie and I knew we couldn’t let him out of our lives. We adopted Ren into our family on September 16, 2022 and couldn’t be happier to be foster failures.