I’m Jack Sivak. I adopted 5yo RAGofAZ Daisy on 05APR2001 and subsequent Foster Failures Tacoma (’01) and Brycee (’02). I’m 82 and want to share a bit of my story with the group that got me started in Golden Retriever Rescue 24 years ago.

After leaving AZ with the above three Goldens, I moved to Northern CA and volunteered with NorCal GRR and Homeward Bound GRR. What I thought was my last Golden, Lucy, died recently at 17.5 yo and I decided not to adopt another because I didn’t want the dog to outlive me – I’ve fostered a few of those over the years and vowed not to let that happen to my dog. As the days turned into weeks and months, I became increasingly depressed (I live alone).

I’m still in pretty good shape so I decided to be available to only foster seniors and hospice dogs for Homeward Bound GRR  Rescue & Sanctuary near Sacramento, CA. Well, the call came.

We have four dogs coming from a Tehachapi (CA) breeder. Two adult females and two puppies. And there was a bout of Kennel Cough at the ‘Sanctuary/Ranch’ so the four must go directly to foster. The oldest adult, Stella, was 6 so I agreed to foster her. Having fostered a few breeder females before I knew that she would be a challenge – confined to kennel and never socialized.

Well, you’ll never guess what happened…after two weeks they wanted to place her but she was nowhere near ready to place with an unsuspecting family.

I did the math and decided that, if she stayed, I was very likely to outlive her. Yep, Stella became another foster failure!

So I just wanted to share this with the group that got me started in Golden Retriever Rescue – Thanks! I’ve attached a picture of all the Foster Failures over the past few decades – not counting the 40-50+ fosters that got placed with forever homes (other than mine). Oh, and I’ve been a Raw Feeder for the past 25 years – all dogs are Raw Fed (fosters too). I’ve been coaching others over the years and finally captured much of what I’ve learned on my website (below). I’ve also helped disprove many ‘food allergy’ beliefs by raw feeding.

Best regards,

Jack Sivak

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Golden Girls Canine Health