I am back with another guest blogger! I would like to introduce you all to Savanna, who is currently living in South Korea with her husband and two beautiful dogs. Savanna has kindly written a post on fostering dogs in Korea!
When she’s not coming up with creative content for a client or managing their social media, you can probably find her working on her blog, Content by Sav, snuggling her dogs, or browsing Reddit for hours.
So what is her story …
I always told myself I would never foster. I have a huge heart and I always thought that if I fostered a dog, I would just end up adopting it for good. We already have two sweet pups, and we don’t really have the means to add a permanent third!
That all changed when I came to Korea, though. We brought our two dogs along with us, so I wasn’t necessarily missing that pet connection. However, when I got here, I realized just how devastating the stray and shelter situation is in most areas.
The dog situation in Korea …
There are shelters all over Korea filled with dozens to hundreds of dogs, all in need of good homes. Some wandered in off the street, or surrendered by irresponsible owners, and many rescued from their impending death at meat farms. Once I learned how grim the situation is for many Korean shelter pups, my husband and I decided there was no way we were going to leave the country without having fostered at least one of these precious dogs.
I visited Asan Cheonsawon Shelter and was instantly heartbroken. The shelter was overflowing with dogs that needed medical treatment, behavioral rehab, and forever homes. We originally wanted to foster a younger dog but even the most well thought out plans are often derailed.
We ended up with a senior: Bumper.
The first fostered dog in Korea …
When we met Bumper, he was, for lack of a better word, scared for his life. It was nearly impossible to wrangle him into a kennel for transport to our apartment. He was just so scared.
We later found that he had spent almost all of his life in the shelter, so of course he was scared! He didn’t know that we were just trying to help him and give him a warm place to sleep at night. He was in total fight or flight mode.
We eventually got him home, and he spent 6 wonderful months with us. Bumper went from a nervous, constantly shaking dog to a still nervous but slightly more trusting one. In the time that we had him, he progressed enough that he was even comfortable taking treats out of our hands and sleeping in the bed with us.
What happened to Bumper?
We never were sure just how old Bumper was, but he was estimated to be anywhere from seven to fourteen years old.
Bumper actually passed away a few nights ago. We had just transferred him to a new, loving foster home since we’re leaving so soon. He was buried at the shelter on a peaceful hill overlooking a field of rice patties.
We, along with Bumper’s most recent foster, gave him the best seven months of his sweet old life. Knowing that we got him out of the shelter and showed him true love and care is enough to keep me fostering senior dogs for the rest of my life.
Should you foster?
I want to encourage anyone who is going to be living long-term in a foreign country to foster an animal.
Fostering during a long-term stay is a great for helping a dog in need and satisfying your need for snuggles! It can be a huge financial commitment to ship pets from country to country, especially overseas.
If you foster a dog knowing that you don’t really have the resources to keep them, it’ll keep you from getting too overly attached, and it’ll make you even more motivated to help find a forever home for the pup!
If you do have the resources, congrats! You might meet your new, permanent best friend.
Fostering dogs in Korea …
If you are in South Korea for a while, Rebel Rescue South Korea is an amazing volunteer-run organisation. We fostered Bumper through them.
However, if you’re staying elsewhere, a simple Facebook search should help you find a rescue shelter that needs your help. Long term fostering may not be your thing, so check with the rescue and see what the options are. They may have dogs who need fostering for a week while recovering from surgery or waiting to be delivered to their forever homes.
Fostering a dog is incredibly rewarding, and there’s no better time to do it than when you’re visiting a foreign country for an extended period.
If not in Korea …
Check out my charities page which has information on a greyhound rescue centre in Spain!
You can also read about how volunteering in a rescue centre sparked my love of travel.
The number of animals in shelters is sad, but it is people like this that make the difference! Animals have always had a special place in my heart and its sad to think about a dog having to spend much of his life in a shelter. It is great that you are taking the time and effort to foster these dogs and give them a better life. I think it would be difficult for me to foster a dog, I would want to adopt them and keep them too! But it is well worth it I’m sure! God bless you.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment. Maybe one day you’ll get the chance to adopt
Such a great story! I never thought about fostering dogs before but this sounds like a great idea. I will look into it more and hope to try it out.
I wish you the best of luck on that adventure!
Savanna has such a big and kind heart! To foster animals like this is truly a gift! Thank you very much for sharing her amazing stories and experiences with these precious animals!
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment! Hopefully it’ll inspire others to foster as well
What a moving story. I never had a dog because I travel a lot. But one day, I will take a dog from the shelter. Dogs in these shelters in Korea have such poor conditions. It’s awful that there are still meat farms, and dogs are eaten.
I wish you the best of luck if you do adopt a dog!
This is so heartwarming! Fostering is an amazing thing. I haven’t fostered as I have 4 cats but all have been adopted from shelters and I couldn’t imagine life without them 🙂
I too have had rescue cats and they were so loving, it’s heartwarming to seeb
wow I had no idea you can do this while traveling or staying abroad. Yeah long term fostering is not my thing but would love to try for a shorter period.
I’m glad this post has allowed you to realise this!
As a dog lover myself, I can truly relate to how Savanna feels toward supporting the important effort to help find forever homes for dogs that find themselves in rescue shelters. The volunteer efforts of those that freely give of their time is beautiful and a great example to all of us that may be in a position to likewise assist. Who knows what previous life Bumper had before you found him, especially given his initial frightened and non-trusting behaviour. At least he managed to know true loving and kindness as we can hope for many other dogs that need a similar home in Korea, or anywhere else for that matter.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment! It’s heartening to know that Bumper had the best last few months of his life
Crying!!! Beautiful post and I love the idea of fostering an animal while living long-term in a country. So beneficial for both. So sad there are so many dogs in shelters 🙁
It truly is heartbreaking but hopefully this will raise awareness and more people will foster!
I am so glad that Bumper was given so much love at the end of his life. This entire situation is so sad, but I don’t think I would be able to foster, as there is no way I would be able to give them up.
I fully understand that! Fostering would be incredibly difficult for me as well
I may be partial to this guest blogger since she is my daughter, but I’ve truly seen, via video chat, how fostering Bumper helped Savanna have more patience and showed that she had an even bigger heart than she thought.
It’s amazing how beneficial fostering can be to people and pets