Foster Information   If our donators and adopters are the Akita Angels, our foster homes are truly the Akita Saviors. There is nothing more heartbreaking or more exhilarating than fostering. Taking in a scared, starved, physically and behaviorally malnourished Akita and turning him or her into a happy, healthy, loving Akita is an experience that defies description!   Being a foster home is a very demanding responsibility - even more demanding than adopting or being an Akita owner. A foster home must be prepared for any sort of behavior problems from the most mundane to the truly severe. A foster home must invest enormous time, love, and care into the individual Akita and then let it go to someone else. A foster home must have resident dogs that will tolerate this coming and going of foster dogs. A foster home must have a heart as big as the prairie, must be willing to dispense tough love, and must honestly assess each Akita because the full nature of an Akita is not known until it has lived with you for several weeks. A foster home must know dog behavior, must be able to have restricted areas that would rival Fort Knox if the foster and the resident dogs do not coexist peacefully, and must know that sometimes even with all the love in the world some dogs are too emotionally scarred to ever find peace in this life. Is it any wonder that foster homes are worth their weight in gold and are more scarce than diamonds?     For those able to foster, though, there is no part of rescue more rewarding than being a foster home. On average, Akitas will be in their foster home around six months. Some place more quickly, some much more slowly, and some never place at all. Each dog taken into foster care  is taken in with the understanding that they may be there for life. Every available avenue from the internet to newspapers to magazines is utilized to encourage adoption for all Akitas in foster care, but it takes time for the right home to come along. It is incomprehensible, but many of the most beautiful, sweetest Akitas are never adopted and grace their foster home for years.   Foster homes are always at a desperate shortage, so if you are interested in the most challenging, the most heartbreaking, and the most rewarding part of rescue work, then please fill out one of our foster applications and return it to Rachel Peeples, DVM or Sheri Geeza, faxed to 912-876-3358 or 336-992-3759, or can be mailed to: Heart of Dixie Akita Rescue, Inc;  P.O. Box 806; Guyton, GA  31312-0806.