Several times over the years, our family had “adopted” a less fortunate family over the holidays and provided food, clothing and even presents. It occurred to me that there is not a similar way to do something kind for the less fortunate pets of the world. This basic idea inspired me to write a book.
In A Dog Named Christmas, Todd McCray hears about a holiday fostering program I called “Adopt a Dog for Christmas” and pleads with his dad to participate. Todd’s dad has some reservations about the concept and calls the shelter for details. He sets his concerns aside. “Ultimately, it was one of those times in my life when I took a deep breath and trusted that it would work.”
Many times readers have asked me, does “Adopt a Dog for Christmas” exist in the real world? I had to say, “No, not really, but maybe someday.” Then I got this letter from Pam at Florida's Pine Forest Animal Clinic
Dear Greg,
I am a veterinary technician in a busy animal hospital in Pensacola, Fl. I picked up your book and loved the story. At the hospital where I work, we had 37 abandoned, unwanted and repaired pets looking for homes. That is until I took your idea from the book and created "Foster a lonely pet for the holidays." The local news did a several day piece on the nightly program. It was amazing!! All of the animals were sent to a home for Thanksgiving and only 3 cats returned today; adoptions were done on the other 34. I thank-you for a great story and idea! We plan to do it again in a few weeks for Christmas.
Pam is on the front row woth the old Golden
Thanks to Pam for taking a deep breath and trusting that what worked in this story would work in the real world too. Pam received “several hundred” calls and assures me that she put the whole program together in ten days and with very little time or effort! There were not near enough dogs to go around. She said she had never seen such an enthusiastic response.
I hope other shelter and clinic owners can set aside their reservations, take a deep breath, and promote similar programs to find temporary homes for pets over the holidays. Most of the pets fostered will end up finding a permanent home, but even if they don’t, awareness and sensitivity for the plight of shelter pets can be dramatically improved.
Pam and I have developed all of the documents needed to implement this program virtually overnight. They are available for download and/or viewing at the top of this page.
The secret to getting a holiday fostering program off the ground is community support. If you can get your local television station to run a story, you too can empty your shelter for the holiday!
Please drop me a line if I can help. Hopefully, the concept of emptying the shelter is incentive enough, but I would like to offer an autographed copy of my book to the first twenty people who get a holiday fostering program started at their local shelter.
Maybe it’s just because I’m a writer and prone to fictional thinking, but I have a vision in my head of animal shelters across America empty on Christmas Eve and dogs and cats, recently released from cages, being pampered by the fire for maybe the first time in their lives. Pam proved it can be a reality. Please consider taking a deep breath and doing your part to make it happen. If circumstances don’t allow this year, please forward this page on to others who may have the time, or consider the idea again next year.
Thanks, Greg Kincaid.
One of the dogs from the Pine Forest Animal Clinic.