It's not you, it's me.

I've decided to have an open relationship.

For the past 2+ years I've fostered solely for Hopeful Hearts, but this year I'm going to change things up a bit. Instead of supporting just one rescue, I'll (hopefully) be fostering for a few different rescues that share the same beliefs and goals as I do.

You might ask why I would stray from my first love (one rescue already did) and it's a little complicated, but I'll try to explain.

As some people have mentioned before in the comments, there are a lot of politics involved in rescue, and believe it or not, even some competition. If you love what you do, you become very passionate about the rescue you foster for and you want them to be the best. I'm ashamed to admit this, but there have been moments in the past, long ago when I first got involved in rescue, when I had been disappointed that another rescue was given x opportunity and the rescue I was involved with wasn't. It's a terrible feeling and I'm not proud of this, but I'm human - though even that explanation feels like somewhat of a cop out. Thankfully I've grown since then and have truly come to live and breath the statement "it's about the dogs". As my very wise boyfriend likes to say, it's not about the name on the back of the jersey.

There are so many incredible dog rescues in the city of Ottawa and the more I learn about each of them, the more my cup runneth over with respect, admiration, and love for what these folks do and accomplish each and every day. I want to be more involved and help when the need arises - regardless of which rescue the dog hails from.

So like Channing Tatum, Hopeful Hearts will always be my first love - but I'm going to try polyamory on for size and see how it suits me.

Stay tuned as I navigate my way through the crazy deep seas of the foster application process.