Throughout the six years of volunteering with Last Hope Animal Rescue Leah has fostered 28 dogs and cats, organized/helped with countless events , completed/scanned paperwork, started/switched/folded hundreds of loads of laundry, attended adoption events, assisted with intakes, given her love to hundreds of cats and dogs, and many more things because she is always willing to jump in wherever when it comes to the animals.

Leah started off by searching for a dog to adopt and found Last Hope and saw the option to foster. She thought it would be a good way to find a dog that would get along with her current dog, Precious, and her daughter Rebecca who was six at the time. They fostered a couple of dogs, then Cisco came along. He was very timid at first but with love from Leah and her daughter, he slowly came around to the point where Rebecca could carry him around the house like a baby doll. When foster families end up adopting their foster dog we affectionately call that a “foster failure.” Cisco was Leah and Rebecca’s first foster failure.

Margie was their second foster failure. She started out very afraid of human interaction but through lots of patience and love, she now begs for attention and will paw at Leah’s hand to be petted and get a belly rub.

And the third foster failure was with Shira, a dog from Egypt. She had a couple of bouts with flu-like symptoms and Leah and her family nursed her back to health. It took Shira six months to get used to Leah’s now husband, Troy. She used to bark at every move he made in the house. But she came around and now she’s part of one big, happy family.

Leah says, “My life would be SO different without all of the dogs who have come and gone through my life and Last Hope.  Each of them has literally left an imprint in my heart.  It can be hard to let my fosters go, but I also know that when we find their forever home I can begin to save a new one!”

Leah and her family are true foster family gems. We know we can count on them to take in even challenging fosters and have the patience and love to help turn them around and get them ready for adoption. Thank you Leah, Rebecca, and Troy!