If you were anything like me as a child, you CRIED real tears at the pet store, begging your parents to buy the tiny white dog in the window each time you went to the mall. My parents said no, adamantly, most likely because of the price tag but, in hindsight I’m glad they didn’t give in to my only-child-syndrome whining. Knowing what I now know about where those dogs come from, I’m happy my parents wanted to feed their child instead of spend two months of groceries on a dog that came from a puppy-mill. If you are blissfully (or purposefully) unaware of what puppy-mills are, they are a crammed facility where dogs are constantly breed in horrific conditions in order to produce the most amount of dogs for profit. During the past year, I’ve been lucky enough to meet the dogs who come from the other side of the tracks, the foster care system, the dogs who travel across America on a daily basis scarcely evading death in a shelter.

Last Autumn, I fell in love with a girl who cares more about dogs than she does herself. This was an extremely alluring character trait for me because when I was ten I decided to be a vegetarian once I figured out that my dinner used to be an animal just like my beloved cat and best friend, Sara. For me, I saw no difference between my cat or a cow. Animals have been and will always be more important to me than (most) humans and I knew she felt the same. Soon after, she filled my dog-less life with more puppies than my wildest third-grader-in-a-pet-store dreams contained. One, because of her job as a dog trainer, but more so because of the dogs she fosters through Last Hope K9 Rescue, a rescue that is devoted to saving as many dogs as possible. Although I already knew enough to never “buy” a dog, I was oblivious until then of what an intricate system that doggy foster care really is.

Each rescue has specific shelters and states they work with. Last Hope works with ones in Arkansas where stray dogs are constantly breeding and owners surrender their dogs on a daily basis to shelters so, in turn, there are too many dogs living in solitude in metal crates. So many that, around one million dogs are euthanized in shelters every year. Volunteers at those shelters have to walk through the shelter every day to make the nearly impossible decision on who to pull. The volunteers up north also have to go through the pictures of the dogs in the shelters to decide who to and who not to save. If it was up to them, every dog would be granted a home, but its inevitable that some have to be left behind. These volunteers have to put their hearts aside and choose almost blindly on who gets the winning ticket out of the shelter. Whenever possible, the dogs who are next on the list to euthanized, who have also been there the longest, are saved first.

Once the hardest part of choosing is over, those who are lucky enough to leave the shelter then go to a foster in Arkansas who preps them for a few weeks before their journey north. When they are seemingly health enough and prepared, they embark anxiously on a long ride with others like them up to New Hampshire. There, they wait for 48 hours in a vets office until their quarantine is up and then, for their new foster parent to pick them up. Quarantining dogs is a rule put in place by Massachusetts to try and avoid the spreading of disease that the dogs may have developed on the transport or that were not noticed before. Once they are finally to their northern temporary home, there are events to attend, meet and greets to go to and pictures to pose for on Facebook. Eventually, each pup finds their fur-ever home, someone who is ready to give them the life they didn't even know they were about to lose.

I’ve heard a few people say that they would rather save the dog from the sad pet store. It's true, the dogs look dehydrated and lethargic in the small crates but when you buy a dog from a pet store, you’re giving the thumbs up to those who run puppy mills to keep breeding. Similarly, when you have a dog and carelessly let it breed with another, you are allowing for more dogs to come into the world when there are already too many waiting for their own home alone in a shelter, wondering why they are there. Wouldn’t it be so much more rewarding to save the dog who made a 1,000+ mile journey just to love you for giving them a second chance then let the puppy mills win?

Since I have been with my girlfriend, I’ve been fortunate enough to foster thirteen dogs with her. I had no idea the amount of pure joy it would bring me to see the dogs go to their own home. At first, the idea seemed tortuous to me. You’re going to give me a dog to love and then take it away? Admittedly, I’m still a big baby when they leave and did not see two of them off for fear I would leave in a pool of my own tears (and sometimes still do when I think about them). My girlfriend has forced me to realize though, that every dog we take in, another one gets to be saved. This is the opposite of every dog that gets bought in a store, another gets bred in appalling conditions that will likely have a slew of health problems.

I have been overwhelmed with the amount of love these dogs still want to give after everything they have already been through in their short lives (All pups pictured in this article were our fosters). If you have room in your home and heart for a new pet, consider loving one who has worked their tails off to get here. If you don’t have the ability to make that commitment, consider becoming a foster and giving these dogs a chance. The more foster parents that rescues have, the more dogs they are able to save from the shelters. Be a bridge for the dog while they wait for their new home. Trust me, they will love you just as much as you love them. If you can’t be a foster, volunteer and if you can’t volunteer, donate or educate.