Why foster?

Lars has been back since just after we returned from Switzerland, due to circumstances beyond his control. Roy misses him, and I don't blame him. He is still anxious, but his nose is as long as ever and he still adores me, loves to play with me and Fozzie, and seeks out affection.

At night, when we go to bed, the other 3 dogs are in the bedroom with us. Fozzie is usually on my pillow making out with Florian, sometimes under the covers, sometimes snoring. Lamar won't allow Lars in with us, so Lars anxiously paces around for a while in the living room. I feel terrible that he is exiled from his tribe like this, so I have been trying to spend some extra special time with him before I go in to bed.

If I just spend a few minutes showing him he can lie on the couch--I don't think he realizes it yet--then cuddling him, stroking him, and loving him on the couch, he settles right down and sleeps right there.

This is why I put up with the front yard, a disaster area of torn up flower pots, dismembered plants and stuffed toys, potholes, compost and wood chips scattered across would-be walkways. And the house, which requires daily sweepings to remove the piles of dog hair, dust, and chewed up fragments of what was once my sweatshirt or Florian's underwear.