Finding a forever home: A foster fail story

Four-year-old Carter Kampbell sat on the couch watching a show on his tablet and eating a bag of chips while his new best friend Diesel sat at his feet, waiting for Carter to slip him a potato chip.

“No, Carter, no more chips,” his mom Kaitlyn Welsh said. “Diesel doesn’t need any more chips.”

Carter slipped Diesel one more as Welsh turned away.

Three-year-old Diesel is a German shepherd/Labrador retriever mix who began his life as a puppy at the Humane Society. He was adopted out to a family, but he was neglected and kept in a crate most of the time, according to his adoption papers. He ended up back at the Humane Society when he jumped a six-foot fence into the neighbor’s yard, causing the neighbor to call the shelter.

Diesel had been back at the Panhandle Humane Society for about a week and a half when the shelter decided to do a special foster program over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“I saw it on Facebook now because I was glancing through in the morning before getting ready for work. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’d be nice,’” Welsh said. “And then all of a sudden, I get on Facebook on my lunch and he (her boyfriend) tagged me in it.”

Welsh wasn’t sure at first if her boyfriend Josh Kampbell would be up for the fostering. He had been hesitant about getting a dog after his first dog passed away. But she thought the fostering wouldn’t be so bad.

She and Kampbell went to the humane society that weekend before Thanksgiving to take a look at the available dogs for fostering. At first, she said, they had their eyes on two golden retrievers, but something kept drawing them back to Diesel.

“We took him out to that little dog area they have and was playing with him,” Welsh said. “And then when we are going back inside, she (shelter worker) was walking in front of us with him, and he stopped and turn around and made sure we were following.”

Welsh said she and Kampbell would have taken him home to foster at that moment but, if they had been able to, but they were still waiting to hear back from their landlord to make sure it was okay to foster a dog in the house for a week.

Luckily, they were able to take him in. They filled out the paperwork, received a little goodie bag of food and toys for Diesel from the shelter and took him home. He quickly became a part of the family.

“He’s just a good fit for us,” Kampbell said. “Our first family dog, and he just fit right in.”

What really stood out about Diesel to both Welsh and Kampbell was that he didn’t bark much, and he played gentle with their son Carter.

“That was the main thing, just making sure they got along for that foster week,” Kampbell said. “He (Diesel) is so good with him.”

However, Kampbell said that if anything, Diesel is a “mama’s boy” because he likes to follow Welsh around wherever she goes. In fact, Welsh got her wisdom teeth out the day before Thanksgiving, and Diesel was by her side as soon as she came home.

“He literally laid on the Ottoman (and) made sure his eyes were on me at all times,” she said. “He crawled in the bed with me and wanted to lick the blood off my face.

“I’m like, ‘no,’” she said with a laugh.

If it turned out that Diesel wasn’t a good fit for the family, they had been prepared to donate back to the shelter the food and toys they had gotten for him. However, it was his protectiveness of Mom, gentleness with his brother and roughhousing with Dad that made them decide to become a “foster fail”—and adopt him to stay with them permanently.

“He just looks so much happier and so much healthier,” Kampbell said.

Diesel had been pretty skinny when Welsh and Kampbell brought him home from the shelter, but they have been bulking him up with food and treats. Welsh said for a while she was bringing something—whether it was a bone or toy or treat—back from the store for him every night.

Now, they look forward to celebrating with and spoiling their newest permanent member of the family during the next holiday.

“As soon as we got him, they came out with at the Walmart their little doggie stocking stuffers,” Welsh said. “Literally as soon as we got him. I was like, “Oh! Perfect timing!’”

Both Welsh and Kampbell said they were glad they fostered over the Thanksgiving holiday, and they were thankful for the Panhandle Humane Society for holding the program. It had given them the opportunity to allow a dog a place in their home and their hearts.

“(Carter) says bye to him every morning,” Welsh said. “‘Bye Diesel, I love you. I love you, bye Diesel.”

*Originally published in the Star-Herald on Dec. 20, 2020.