On why we choose to foster dogs instead of adopt them

I'm a huge fan of the "selfish" reasons to bring in dogs

This time two years ago, we had six adopted dogs, and two foster dogs.

When we were out socially, our friends would introduce us to other people by saying, “okay Adrian and Spencer, tell them how many dogs are in your house right now.” Sheepishly, we’d say “…eight…” and watch people’s eyes bug out. They’d then try to figure out a graceful way to ask us why.

Listen, I’m the first to say that six dogs is probably my cap in my home. Five is better, and four is best. We’re down to three adopted dogs, and we typically have one to two fosters at any given time.

Yes, we may have been slightly overdoing it when we had eight.

We are huge believers in bringing home older dogs. They are so underrated, in my opinion. I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for years, and my hope is that I can convince people that older dogs are incredible companions in their own right, and that choosing an older dog doesn’t have to have anything to do with selflessness.

It’s a really, really good idea for our motivations to involve some selfishness - and while we’re at it, let’s try to reclaim that word, yeah? Selfishness isn’t inherently a bad thing.

In the same way that there are plenty of reasons to selfishly bring home an older dog, there are also plenty of reasons to selfishly bring home a dog to foster without the intention of adopting them. My reasons for fostering are a bit of mixed bag.

I like to think of my relationship to fostering as a type of symbiosis. It’s good for me, and it’s good for them. We help each other out, and we each give each other a bit of what we really need.