Our family fosters senior beagles. When we started, we expected to get one every few months, to nurse them back to health, and to care for them until an older couple came for them or they passed away. But nothing could be further from the truth! We have been lucky enough to foster 21 older beagles over the 18 months that we've worked with BREW, and ALL have found fabulous new homes that love and care for them completely. From 6-year-olds that play like puppies to 9- and 10-year-olds who just want a lap to sleep on, all have blossomed into good companions and been snapped up by caring adopters.

Even the harder cases, those who didn't come from caring homes, have found their happy endings. The neglected 7-year-old who had never known people now has a best friend in his adopter, and she in him. The 7-year-old with an eyelid malformation has now had it fixed by a veterinary ophthalmologist and is a little girl's faithful companion. The 9-year-old breeding mom is now a spoiled companion who goes for walks in Harvard Square. And the 7-year-old who was given up when her family's new baby was born allergic to her is now happy in a new home with a mom, a dad, and several aquariums of fish to watch during the day! We did lose one foster beagle, 12-year-old Buttercup, to liver failure, but we were happy to give her a home for as long as she had, and the look in her eyes as she gratefully accepted pets, hugs, and fresh water was an experience I'll never forget. She taught me to live each day as it comes, and to always take time to enjoy the flowers.

For Buttercup, and all the rest, we will continue to foster senior beagles as long as there are senior beagles still out there needing homes. The seniors we have fostered are generally well-behaved, over their chewing phase, grateful for our care, and wonderful to cuddle with. Although our foster beagles arrive, are adopted, and leave in only a few weeks, the memories of each one of them will always be kept in our hearts.

And every month, a new beagle arrives to become part of our family, until she finds her very own.

Susan & Curt