It's March 23, so you know what that means — Happy National Puppy Day. Best Friends Animal Society is a no-kill animal shelter with a Northwest Arkansas location in Bentonville. Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis reached out to them on this joyous day. They put him in contact with Lorie Comer, who over the past few years has fostered over 100 puppies. She says this era of her life started on Facebook.
"The first time was in October of 2023. I have a room in my home that I call my project room, kind of a craft room, those kinds of things. I was working in that room that day and I looked at Facebook and saw where Best Friends had posted an urgent plea for one mama and one puppy that needed a foster home. And I thought, I have the space. Surely I can do this one time, because I was always concerned about getting too emotionally attached and thought I wouldn't be able to do it. So I reached out to them. Short version: I became a foster."
Comer says she didn't initially see herself as a foster home for puppies, but she can't imagine her life any other way now and encourages others to just try it once.
You can start small. Best Friends Animal Society allows people to take a dog for a day, a few hours, an overnight or a weekend. And if you decide to foster puppies — 10, or 1 — Comer has some advice. In fact, that is her first piece of wisdom: start small. And puppy-proof your house. Seriously.
"I put up a playpen. The puppies don't just run my house. They have their special space. I put up a puppy playpen. Mama can go in and out of that playpen. And then I put linens down for the puppies. And then I place a bed outside of the playpen for Mama, for when she wants to get away from them. Because when you've got 8, 10, 12 babies, those mamas need a break too."
The puppy gate serves a dual purpose: it places a barrier between these teething, overly needy puppies, mother dogs and your furniture. Comer also recommends putting a puppy pad — those white, flat diaper-like liners — in the pen with the pups so they can start the crate training process early.
That leads into her next point: your part in the process. Comer says foster parents have the responsibility of getting puppies socialized before they can be adopted. Socializing puppies is obviously a big lift.
"Typically, every evening I will go sit with my litter of puppies. Literally, I sit in the floor with the puppies and just play with them — if they want to be held, if they want to be in my lap, or play with them with the toys when they're learning, hey, this is something fun. And just petting them, getting them used to that touch all over their body. I call it socializing. Because otherwise, if they're just left in the corner by themselves, they might know how to interact with another puppy, but they might be afraid to interact with a human. They need all of that exposure."
Comer emphasizes how rewarding fostering animals can be, baby or otherwise. She says you can make fostering work for you and your availability.
"It's a fantastic way for people who love animals but aren't in a place in their life where they can make the full lifetime commitment, but they can commit for a day, a week, a month, or however long it takes for that dog to get adopted."
Goodbyes can be hard, but Comer says she reminds herself of her place in this puppy's life.
"I'm not going to say I've never shed tears, because I have. But what I realized, and what has brought me to this place where I've fostered over 100 now, is the whole rescue fostering world is a village, and everyone in that village has a specific piece of the road, so to speak, that's their assignment. It's like going to work every day — you have a piece of whatever your job is, that's your assignment. So there has to be someone watching the shelters, someone tagging the ones that are going to be pulled. Someone has to drive to get them. Someone has to vet them when they get here in Northwest Arkansas, and then that's where the foster steps in."
For more on fostering and adoption opportunities, go to Best Friends Animal Society.
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