About Fostering

 Everything Grey Greyhound Haven is a totally foster based adoption group for retired racing greyhounds.  Foster homes are the backbone of our group, and are badly needed.  Foster "parents" provide temporary, loving care for greyhounds until they are on their way to new lives. The rewards of fostering a new greyhound cannot be adequately explained in words, and the effort isn't all that taxing. Greyhounds which have been brought up on rearing farms and later housed in kennels during their racing careers have a very regimented lifestyle and have little or no experience of the day to day happenings in the average family household.  The first two or three weeks of a Greyhound's transformation into a companion dog represents a huge learning curve and may be stressful to the dog unless handled sympathetically. The fostering period allows for an assessment of the Greyhound's personality and behavior traits, which may not be apparent in a kennel environment. It allows the dog to be introduced carefully to a range of new experiences so that when faced with these in their future adoptive home, the dog can cope without apprehension or fear. This is also the time when spaying or neutering is arranged.  Some things in daily life that retired racers have never been exposed to are stairs, different types of floor surfaces, glass windows and doors, household noises, car rides, and other animals.  After sometimes several weeks, it is necessary for the foster family to say goodbye to their house guest. However, they send them to their permanent homes ready to become part of the family, but knowing that whenever they meet again, their grey will remember them and greet them as only old friends do.  The most common reservation potential greyhounds foster’s have is becoming too attached and wanting to keep their grey.  Well, that is very true for each of us, but remembers, if you adopt, you can save one; if you foster, you can save many. Many of our fosters fail "fostering 101", but continue to foster.  They then have the best of both worlds