My family fostered a dog named Coco

Fostering a cat or a dog is a great way to help save a life. I would like to tell you about my experience fostering a dog named Coco. Coco is a 16-year-old cocker spaniel that is deaf and sight impaired. When my mom and I saw a Facebook post from Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue, the post said they needed an emergency foster so that they could pull her out of the kill shelter. My mom emailed them about how we could foster Coco until they could find her a forever home.

The same day, we picked up Coco from the veterinarian’s office in Flushing, Queens. We knew from experience with our own rescued cocker spaniel that you need to be very cautious and gentle with them. Many of the dogs in the kill shelters suffer from abuse and at times have disabilities that you do not know about. My dog Honey suffered from glaucoma, which we didn’t find out about until a year later. She had been in a lot of pain and would nip at you if you approached her from the back. We realized she couldn’t see anything from the sides and that she was only trying to nip because she was afraid and in pain. Honey eventually went blind and we had her eyes removed to take the pain away. She’s now a very happy doggie.

Once we got Coco we took her to the groomer to get cleaned up. When we brought her home, we let her walk around the house to get used to it. Unfortunately, Honey wasn’t a very nice hostess and kept trying to bite Coco. It was a little hard having one blind dog and one deaf and partially blind dog together. We ended up having to keep them in separate parts of the house. While we were fostering her for a week, Abandoned Angels called my mom to tell her that they found an adopter who lives in Philadelphia. We were so happy to get Coco to her forever home. Coco quickly relaxed at her new home with her new kitty sister and has been happy ever since.

If we didn’t foster Coco, she would have been euthanized. Now Coco can happily live the rest of her life with a loving family.