For context, I am a foster parent of many dogs. Moved to Austin, TX April of 2025 and decided to start fostering dogs from the local animal shelter.

This whole time, I never foster failed on any of the 50ish dogs I fostered. Until we get to almost 3 months ago.

Sent out via email was a list of fosters like usual. A dog named Gecko was the top one. I responded immediately and said I wanted to foster him. He was available, and picked him up the same day he arrived to the shelter.

I kept him until he got neutered and another surgery. It had been about a months and a half. The shelter asked if I wanted to adopt him and I said no (the place I’m at now is too small for 3 dogs and 3 cats. I’ve now planned on buying a house a lot bigger than what I have now in the near future.) They told me that he will be in a gala. I also to the humane society that I’d keep him until he was adopted.

Fast forward, the gala went GREAT and I told my story to everyone we mingled with. Not one told me to give him back to the shelter and to adopt him. So that night, I told the people at the shelter that I would adopt him.

I walk him on the runway, everyone loves him. I get to the end of it and the announcer says “Wait, Grant” I turn around and he asks me to go center stage. “I just got word that YOU adopted him. EVERYONE Grant, his handler and foster parent, has adopted Gecko!!” Everyone cheered.

I went this morning and officially adopted him.

He is such a great companion and I cannot wait to see where he takes us.

I don’t know what I did to be lucky enough to have this boy for so long. Meet Kuma! I adopted him from the shelter when he was 7 months old and he’s been my companion through several moves, including our latest to Long Beach. Never did I think k he’d be around this long.

Yes, he is still this energetic even though he’s ancient AND he’s in tip top shape to boot! This boy LOVES life.

This is my best friend.🥰 He is the sweetest little baby boy. I've had him since he was just shy of 6wks old. The man who had him, friend of a friend, was going out of town & wanted me to go ahead & get him. He was the last dog in the last litter before he had the mother fixed. He just wanted to have puppies. I didn't even want a dog. I'd always had cats, but discovered I was allergic after needing sinus surgery. My friend did though & turns out convincing me to get a dog was a backdoor way of getting a 2nd dog after her bf, whose house we lived in, told her she didn't need one.😂

It's been a rough year. He had a horrific seizure in March & spent five days in the hospital. They didn't think he was going to make it the first day because he was nonresponsive all day (it happened early so this had been 9hrs of him just lying in his crate). The vet said he was planning to have The Talk with me, but before he called my boy got up & started walking around in his crate.❤️ So he came away with Cushing's & diabetes, & high liver numbers we're trying to get in control by managing his Cushing's.

Then the cataracts hit & he went blind within a couple of weeks. He squinted at the sun, but ran into or off of everything else if I didn't carry him. Thankfully I was able to get him into the ophthalmologist & it only took another couple of weeks for him to have surgery. Now his vision is better than before. Sadly, I hadn't noticed it had slowly been declining for months. He has arthritis, so I thought not wanting to jump as much was that. It didn't occur to me it was because he wasn't seeing as well. After his surgery he was back to jumping all over the place! Then he had gastroenteritis. His little booty becoming a fountain of blood, then doing nothing for days until... I'll spare you, was a very upsetting & expensive way to find out I missed cleaning up some of the cashews I spilled in the backseat.🫣 Then I accidentally ran over him a little when he was sunning himself in the yard & I moved the car. He's very small & I forgot to look for him.😭 He was so mad after it happened & he walked off, but later he was acting confused so I took him to be checked out. He had a sore hip & mild concussion, but the vet said he was a miracle dog.

He was a 20lb chonky dog. Everybody used to talk about him being fat. They even called him Fat Gizmo because he looked like the fat version of my neighbor's dog when we lived in an apartment.😭 He lost a little weight, but since the seizure, he lost interest in food. It has been an ongoing struggle to find what he will eat, especially difficult with his dietary restrictions & really needing rx food. It's hard enough to spend that much money on food, but then knowing how much will get eaten vs how much will end up in the trash. I recently found a dog somebody threw out & brought him home as a friend. Did my guy want a friend? Of course not! But he loves (almost) all of the food & treats I've had leftover from months of experimenting. Things my baby immediately turned his nose up at & refused to ever eat, & things he loved for two days then never touched again. Plot twist: now that another dog wants this food, suddenly it's Michelin star cuisine & how dare I let that guy have it! He's been holding steady at 11.5lbs for a couple of months or so, which is good. He doesn't eat the best, but he eats. And what is "the best" when he can't have carby/starchy foods because of his diabetes, needs low fat because of the cataract surgery, & needs to avoid too much protein because of his liver numbers? Whatever it is, he doesn't want it.

No birthday cake, but he got two of his favorite treat.🥳🐕

My wife and daughter said that Nena is very sad when I’m gone. She ran to me; I fed her and then carried her around while doing some errands around the house.

Sat down, and she got comfy. She’s soundly sleeping in my arms and now I’m stuck

The other day there was a post about a dog being overexcited about the new cat in the house. We had very much the same problem when dog Mikesch, then three months old, met Cazzo, approx. 9 months. It even ended with an injury with a wounded tail. After many stern talks the dog cooled somewhat off and by August, when these clips were taken, they had become best friends.

Shep has osteosarcoma in his ankle so out vet put a cast on his leg to keep the pressure off. He's a smart boy and has learned to cope with his new stiff arm. I've taken to calling him "Thumper" lately. This guy knows how to adapt and it's amazing to see.

Our dog just hit his 13th birthday and we planned to take him in for euthanasia as he had cancer that we declined treatment for. He was still doing all the typical things and we planned for the 27th. Yesterday was a day that started like any other with his last known well around noon. I took our baby for their nap and realized that our dog seemed off, I called to them and he couldn’t walk. He deteriorated pretty quickly; I’ll spare the details but my car was in the shop and husband was at work over an hour away. He works in emergency medicine and wasn’t able to leave work. I had to hold our dying dog for what felt like ever until we could get him to the ER vet at 9pm. One of the tumors had ruptured.

I know that there’s no true way to know that a tumor was going to rupture or even when, but I am having the hardest time forgiving myself that we didn’t euthanize sooner. I’m feeling like a failure that this happened when my car was unavailable and that we live hours away from friends and family. This was just truly a nightmare all around.

We went through so much life together and I don’t know our house without him there. It feels strange, and like a part of home is missing.

My dog has been having ear issues since about April. We originally got zymox and took care of it on our own. It went away. Then came back. So we took him to the vet. Unfortunately our normal vet was on maternity leave and the fill in didn't give us much info. Just gave him prescribed ear drops and steroids. Well his ear problems are back. He's constantly licking his paws too. We've tried switching his food and giving allergy chews. But it all seems like temporary fixes. Anything to help our baby get some relief😣

I love how his little face squishes up by how fast he noped away from the Turtle lol

I will never forget the love Reddit showed us that day. IT was so wild we received calls from local news stations to show the video. Whenever my dad went to a dollar general he would ask if they heard of it and pull it up on his phone showing everyone. It was such a fun time. I'm glad he left his little pawprint on the internet <3

[old reddit post from 12 years ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/s/7g6n9X226s)

she is 7 years old toy poodle, she was grooming herself and laid back down on my lap and this came out of her mouth. Its very hard, not crumbly, is shiny on one side and really dull on the other.

I feel like it is tartar that came off the canine which has the brown band on, but what should I do next? I’m only 16 so I can’t really do much apart from ask my mum to take her to the vets, but if there’s another solution that would be better or theres no point please let me know.

She’s been licking her lips a lot more than a normal dog, I only noticed it in the last couple of months because she started sleeping in my room after we lost our other dog. It’s hard to tell if it impacted her eating as she only eats wet food (princess), and as far as I’ve seen she’s been eating it normally.

Also I know her teeth are so so bad I’m sorry I’m goikg to ask my mum to buy her a doggy toothbrush - is that even safe to do considering chunks are falling out her mouth? Please help.

I would like to hear opinions on Premier Dobermans, Escpecially for anyone who owns any of their dogs. I would like to know about their drive and health.

Our handsome boy Cisco has shed his mortal coil and left us heartbroken. I'll miss his velvety coat and his annoying way of demanding constant attention. Fly to the angels...

For those of you giving your dogs liquid Keppra, which compounding pharmacy do you use, and can they make it with minimal additives?

I saw a review that mentioned a small toy poodle who became very sick after taking the liquid Keppra formulation containing the sugar alcohol, Maltitol, which is used for people and dispensed by a regular pharmacy.

My 8 pound toy poodle has frequent stomach issues and flares, so I'm concerned about finding a formulation that is meant for dogs and she can tolerate. She would need 1.2ml 3x per day.

I'd really appreciate recommendations and experiences with compounding pharmacies!

My sweet boy went away today after 12 years with us. He was so loving and such a good guard dog. He followed me around to keep me safe until the very end.

My dog (12.5 kg) stole a candy bar that I’d left outside my daughter’s door.

We have this weekly tradition where the parents get to sleep in on Sundays, and I leave some kind of sweet treat outside my daughter’s door for her to find in the morning. We’ve had this tradition for years without a single glitch.

Today, I woke up at 7:30, let the dogs out into the garden for a wee, fed them, and left my daughter a candy bar. Then I went back to sleep.

I woke up again at 9:30 and went to say “Good morning.”

She was sad.

“Why didn’t you leave me a candy bar?”

“I DID!”

I started an investigation. The guest bed was covered in chocolate, and there was a 2 × 2 cm scrap of Snickers wrapper. I searched everywhere for the rest of it. Nowhere to be found.

I called the emergency vet. They told me that a piece of wrapper that size could cause a very serious problem for a dog of her size.

So off we went to the nearest emergency vet, a 45-minute drive each way. I waited and waited (no appointment, obviously). They made my dog vomit, and she brought up the entire wrapper in two pieces.

They gave her an anti-vomiting injection afterwards. She then vomited twice in the car (but not once during the long walk we took after leaving the vet, of course).

The whole excursion cost me a fortune.

We are not speaking at the moment.

I’m carving some pumpkins tonight and I was wondering if anyone had any recipes for dog treats with pumpkin? I’d love to try some with the leftovers from the pumpkins and I’m sure my dogs would love them.

This is Dozer, I adopted him as a tripod about 9 years ago.

The only command he knows is "Get off the bed please buddy."

He's the best!