I'm wanting to foster/adopt and have a question?

Question

Hello, my husband and I are wanting to be foster parents and eventually adopt and my question is that we have three dogs a great dane, chihuahua, and a Pom./maltese mix, and I was wondering if they would make us get rid of them or they would be ok with having a baby in the home with three dogs. Also they said we would have to be married for 2yrs., and this August will be 2yrs and the lady said we could start doing all the paper work this Feb. and could have a child in our home by August... Has anyone else done foster care? If so could anyone give me a little more info on it? I'm really interested, and can't wait til Feb. and August of 2008!

Answer 1

We had a dog when we adopted our daughter.  Actually, the birth mother liked the idea of her daughter being adopted by animal lovers.  Social Services agreed.  (Not that Social Services would have said "no" if we hadn't had a pet!)

Answer 2

We have been fostering for about 4 years now.  We have 2 labs that have never been a problem as long as their shots have been kept up to date.  In our state, there are dogs that are not allowed such as Rotts, Pits, Dobermans, and Shepperds.  Other than that, I think all other animals are ok.  

I wouldn't hold your breath about getting placement right away though depending on what state you are in.

Answer 3

My wife and I have a dog and we were approved to be foster parents no problem.  The only thing we had to do differently was provide a letter from our vet that the dog does not have any communicable diseases.

Answer 4

It could differ from state to state but one of my neighbors was considering adoption and they have two Dobermans.  The discussed a lot of the things they were going through with the state but no mention was ever made of having to get rid of the dogs.  California is the state where we live.

As for foster care, you will certainly be able to decline a child but most of the people I have know who were into foster care seemed to be dealing with very difficult children most of the time.  I think foster care is not something I would want to be involved with.  Not that everyone should avoid it, but I don't think my temperament could coexist peacefully with a very difficult child.

Be advised all my knowledge is second hand but I have known more than a dozen couples who have had involvement with the system.  In fact, one was a single g*y man, he was denied primarily because of his "on call" work status.  He said it wasn't related to his sexual orientation but I some times wonder...

Answer 5

We were concerned about our dogs as well, but it was no problem getting approved.  We are adopting not fostering, but had the same approval process.

Answer 6

We had two dogs when we started fostering, and since the worker that did our home study met them, she didn't have a problem since they were very friendly.  And we knew our dogs - if there had been any concerns about them being around children, we would not have done any fostering.  As long as you know your dogs, and know that they can be trusted around children, convey that to your worker.  Also don't shut them away in a room somewhere when she's there.  They're part of your family, and need to be treated as such.  And she probably wants to see how you treat them and how they act around you.  Don't be surprised if you have a child or children before August - we had a child even before we finished our foster training!  It's a challenging job sometimes, but oh so rewarding!  We ended up adopting three of our fosters.

Answer 7

We have three large-ish dogs (50lbs+ each) and were certified as a foster home.  Having dogs was never an issue.  In fact, when we got our boys, the boys loved the dogs (the dogs are less certain about the relationship) and this made those involved even more confident we were the right home.

Our dogs are rambunctious, but are clearly friendly, well cared for, and up to date on their shots, so we had no problems.  If your dogs come across as possibily dangerous (such as being a breed with a bad reputation, such as a pit bull or doberman) or are not well cared for, then you may have to get rid of them.

Edit - The previous answerer implied that all foster kids are 'problems', this is incorrect.  Yes, there are kids with problems, our older boy used to have many behavior and developmental problems.  However, many are just normal kids with the same problems as any kid.  You can decline to take kids if you are concerned about them (for example, a history of agression toward animals), but, you should know that the 'reports' from CPS are often incomplete and based on assessments done by people who only met the kids for less than a hour.

Answer 8

I was a therapeutic foster parent for many years.  Do not jump into an adoption.  There is usually about a year honeymoon period where all is well.  ALL these children have emotional problems, most deep seeded.  You can not love them away.  Go into this with love but please do not be blinded by it. Most of these children are great cons at a young age, they can't help it.  I can say this being an abused child myself.  Working with DHS is heartbreaking, they are overloaded.   We need more foster parents. Congratulations