Curry was dropped off yesterday at his new home. His “Dad” is very excited about adding Curry to their family. The family is friends with one of the shelter’s staff so in many ways this is an ideal adoption.

Liane and I fostered Curry for about 19 weeks. Our longest previous foster was two weeks and there were several that we only did for a weekend. What a difference. To some degree, actually a large degree, every dog that we fostered I felt was one of our dogs. I believe that they took a part of us with them and they left a part of themselves with us.

With Curry it was much more extreme. There is no doubt that he was our dog. We spent a lot of time with him and had a big time emotional investment in him. He demanded attention and we actually spent more time with him then Juneau and Dottie. He went to a number of adoption outings. He was always upstairs. He slept next to our bed. He really was the King. More then once I told him it was nice to have another guy in the house.

He could be bratty, but he could also and many times was as sweet as any dog could be. He made us crazy with his antics and countersurfing but we really love him and thoroughly enjoyed his company. It wasn’t easy dropping him off last night.

Liane and I spoke about it and it was kind of like when your child leaves home and is now off to start their own life. Only it might be worse. At least when a child leaves home you stay in touch, you see each other on occasions and you generally keep tabs on each other. When your foster dog leaves, generally that’s it and you never hear from them again. You think about them often and they certainly have touched your life, but that’s pretty much the end of it.

Our attachment to Curry was much more then I anticipated. I started trying to distance myself from him when we new the adoption might happen. It was actually in the works for several weeks and took longer then you would expect because the adopters were in the midst of a move. I figured if I distance myself a bit the transition would be easier for both of us. I’m not sure that was the case. I wasn’t able to distance myself from him yesterday knowing that this would be our last day together.

Curry is their first dog as adults. We gave them all kinds of written information on getting started and we gave them painful detail on his routine and training to date. I really didn’t want to overwhelm his new dad but I spent every bit of 30 minutes briefing him and I probably could have gone on for several hours.

I hope all works out well for Curry and his new family. I will miss him forever and think about him often. Curry will always be one of my dogs.