We need extra foster homes due to rise in Cavalier surrenders

We have been struggling again recently with foster spaces. Many of the Cavaliers coming into rescue are senior with a barrage of health problems, this means the time they are in rescue is vastly extended compared to a younger dog.

Why do we need our fosterers to be close?

We do need our fosterers to be close, if we had our own jet or helicopter then we could allow fosterers to be further afield! As it stands due to the difficult behavioural and health issues many of the Cavaliers have we do need our fosterers to be close by to either our HQ in North Lincolnshire, or a foster buddy in South Yorkshire or Bishop Auckland. We have needed to move dogs into a more suitable foster home at very short notice, we also need to use our preferred vets and specialists that we have long standing relationships with.

The distance is one hour as it wouldn’t be fair to expect a fosterer to drive further than this to the vets multiple times or to the groomer we use for example. The dogs need so many vet appointments, you can be back twice in a week on average and that could be every week until they are adopted.

Children

A lot of the Cavaliers have challenging behaviour problems hence us only being able to use foster homes where there isn’t a young resident child. The safety of the children and the dogs is paramount to us. Often the dogs haven’t been coping well with children in the home and have developed aggression towards them.

Support for foster homes

We offer so much support and training to our fosterers, we are always on hand to help. Cavaliers are a very difficult breed to care for in terms of their health, especially with the rise in puppy farming and breeders not carrying out health tests before breeding. We are seeing more and more with difficult behaviour issues also and we remain in contact with a behaviourist and carry out training sessions.

What are the rescue Cavaliers really like?

By nature as a rescue we of course see the more difficult and unhealthy dogs, we really have had our eyes opened over the last few years. We have all been Cavalier owners for decades but we have found many of the rescue dogs are very different to a ‘typical Cavalier’ that is well rounded, well socialised etc. These are often damaged little souls that need a lot of work to recover and be well enough either health-wise or mentally to be adopted.

We do need fosterers to have a safe garden and space to allow the dog to have his/her own area to escape to. Fosterers must be fit and able to walk the foster dogs.

Fostering isn’t easy but it is very rewarding. We are a family here at Bliss and we need more family members to carry on helping these Cavaliers that need us so much.

If you think you can help please do apply here- https://www.blisscavalierrescue.org/foster/