Adventures In Fostering: Meet Francis

Kevin Roberts
by Kevin Roberts
In addition to his own pack Kevin Roberts is active dog foster parent. Have you thought about opening your home to a foster dog? In this series, Kevin will regale you with tales of his own foster adventures.


It’s been awhile since we (my husband and I) had fostered a dog. With a young dog of our own, another dog recovering from major surgery, and my own back injury, it just wasn’t the right time for us to foster.


When Burger turned two, his training had finally started to stick. River recovered nicely from her knee surgery and returned to active duty, and my back injury became more manageable. Life was back to normal… and that’s when the itch to foster again resurfaced.


Related: Why You Should Consider Fostering a Dog


I contacted my friend, Sally Hull, who runs Hull’s Haven Border Collie Rescue. Her rescue takes in all sorts of dogs in needs, but specializes in Border Collies. With a network of foster homes and transport drivers, this rescue lives by its motto: “Mercy knows no borders”.

As it happened, there was a dog who had been saved from euthanasia sentence at the last minute from a high-kill shelter thousands of miles away. The dog was a young male Border Collie, about ten months old, and great with people and dogs. He was down on his luck – he was found as a stray and ended up in a shelter in a community with more dogs than adoptive homes. As a result, he was going to be put down. His luck changed when a shelter worker saw what a sweet dog, so full of potential he was, and reached out to Hull’s Haven. And so began his journey to my home town.


Related: Black Dog Syndrome


The questions put to me was did I want to foster him? Going with nothing but my gut, I said “Yes!” All I knew was that his name was Francis and he was a happy dog.


It took a few days for Francis to arrive. That gave us a few days to set up kennels, and stock up on puppy food and extra toys. Francis was on his way to us via a network of volunteers who each took him on a three to four hour stretch of his epic journey. Along the way, he spent the night with amazing dog-loving rescue people, and was passed from loving arms to loving arms.


On a Sunday afternoon, I received a call – Francis would be here within three hours. We were ecstatic to finally meet the furry guy. We hopped in the truck and headed to the pre-arranged meeting place.

Arriving in the parking area of a rural gas station, we met the other families that would be fostering the newest batch of rescues. It was quite the party – everyone was friendly, chit chatting, but nervous. We were about to meet our new charges, which is really where our minds were at.


At last! The doggy rescue van made its grand entrance into the parking lot. I was tired of waiting, and nearly ripped the van door right off! I just wanted to meet Francis and take him home.


Francis hopped out of the van, ran over to us, and just leaned on our legs – it’s like he knew he’d be staying with us. We hit the foster jackpot. This boy was sweet and so full of love!


And so, the adventure begins…


Kevin will be back next week with Part 2 in his series on being a foster dog parent.

Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts

Kevin Roberts lives for adventure. Together with his pack of rescue dogs and his husband, he spends as much time outdoors as possible. Kevin lives by the motto: "Get outside and play with your dogs!

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