Done and Done

For the the last 6 months or so I have been fostering for a local rescue. The first was a fun and crazy little coon hound. The second one to come was a surrender from the shelter. I was asked to take him because of having some experience dealing with slightly aggressive dogs. He had a history of biting. I did. After some decompression time I started trying to introduce him to the farm and people. He did great on the farm. People, well not so much. He became extremely attached to me and I to him. However, he bite my hubby 4 times and a trainer friend of mine in the face. All attacks unprovoked. As a matter of fact, he was sitting by my side looking off in the distance when he leaped up and bit the trainer.
I contacted the rescue. I explained that as much as I loved him I love my hubby more and he was a very unsafe dog with very deep issues. I have young children that come to visit and I shudder to think if he were to get loose while they were here. Simply put, the dog was unadoptable. Well, I was verbally attacked for not being willing to keep him. Finally after much discussion they agreed to put him in boarding. The next day they posted that he was extremely aggressive with the kennel personnel and were debating what to do with him. I was offered some semblance of an apology. In the interim another dog needed to be taken out of boarding. They asked. I did. When I asked his story I was told that his first foster couldn't keep him because she was pregnant and the second dropped him off to be boarded while she was out of town and never went back to pick him up.

Now for the real story. He was taken to boarding because he chased her horses. NEVER was this information given to me. If it had he would never have come here. I would never allow my animals to be in jeopardy. Ever. He was an escape artist. I had to constantly keep my eye on him and he was not allowed to run loose. He climbed, he dug under and pushed out of almost every pen or crate I have. On one occasion he did manage to grab a chicken but that didn't really set off an alarms since my granddog, a rescue rattie, will chase and grab a chicken in a skinny minute.
Last week he slipped away from me and before I could grab him, he ran down to the barn, climbed a fence and viciously attacked a goat. By the grace of God, my son happened to be here. We had to choke him off, literally to the point he almost passed out before he would let go.
Once again I contacted the rescue asking if another foster could step up. Well, I have never in my life been so shocked at how quick some people are to judge people they don't even know. First they said that they didn't know I had a farm. Untrue since I sent pics of the coon hound with the sheep. Then it became my fault for letting him get loose and I was accused of lying about not knowing he wasn't good with livestock. I was told that chasing the chicken should be a give away. Between the two rescue people I spoke with I felt like I had been tossed into a tank of piranhas. I was hurt beyond words. I gave them a week for a new foster to step up.
That wasn't even the worst of it. They then posted on Facebook how I left him loose and unattended. They also said I kept him penned where he had to sit and watch the goats all day. Just to name a  few things. Unbelievable. My character and integrity was attacked by numerous responses to that post by people who once again have never met me and never knew the truth.

My faith in humanity has been severely shaken this past week. Social media has gotten completely out of control. It is my hope that this post will makes us all stop and think, even for a second, that there is a human on the other side of your conversation. And I also hope that we are reminded that there are two sides to every story.

Done and done and never again.