Letter to Tara's new parents

I don't know if I should do this, but I thought a letter to Tara's new foster parents would give them an idea of how loving Tara is:


To Tara’s new Mum and Dad,

First of all, thank you for taking a rescue dog instead of buying a dog, and thank you for taking Tara. I just wanted to write you a wee note about your new family member.
Tara is a loving, energetic bundle of fun who will quickly claim your heart. She is a happy wee pup and is very eager to please you, very quick to pick up commands; within days of being in our house she had taken a piece of our hearts, and was learning how to sit, stay and lie down on command. Within a day she had my husband figured out as the soft touch and had worked out that if she sat and gave him her paw in a ‘please’ she’d get a custard cream. She will respond quickly to commands and learns really fast as you can tell.

She is a people-dog, she loves EVERYONE! So loves to cuddle EVERYONE! Frequently visitors to our house have sat down and unexpectedly found themselves being treated to a Tara-cuddle…ie on your knee with her head on your shoulder….thankfully most visitors to my house are used to dogs and aren’t bothered by an impromptu cuddle from their new hairy best friend.

Tara loves kids, she loves to be around my son and his friends, and many a giggle has been had by her enthusiastic kisses when he gets in from school. He’s 11 so is tall enough to handle her crazed leaping but a toddler may have a harder job, we’ve been trying to stop her jumping up but she hasn’t quite got the hang of it when she is really excited. Our son and his friends all love Tara and are used to unexpected face washes now.

Your new girl will love to supervise you no matter what you are doing, from doing the dishes (don’t step back too quick – there could be an accident, she leans against your legs), to hanging out the washing (although look out for items of washing wandering across the garden), she loves to be around you all the time. I was being supervised this morning while putting our washing in the machine – just to make sure I was doing it right. She is very playful, loves to play tug-of-war with her foster-brother Dougal, and will play fight like there is no tomorrow, my living room has become a wrestling ring with the two of them, but it’s lovely to see the dogs having such a lot of fun.

I think Tara will benefit from lots of walks, she loves her walks but has not quite figured out that dislocating my shoulder is not the best way to get walked faster, eventually she does stop trying to make your arm grow once you’ve been out for a while, about an hour usually does it. Joking, she’s not that bad, she is very interested in rabbits, although I have not had her off the lead yet as her recall is a little patchy at the moment, she is showing a great deal of interest, so might be worth keeping an eye on her in case she does more than show interest once she is off the lead.

Tara loves to chew, in the manner of all puppies, she is only young after all. She has a chew bone which I have sent with her, and loves the rawhide chews, she will chew things that sometimes you don’t want her to chew, but learns quickly that it’s not such a great idea…we’ve only lost one phone charger and some loo roll…and some paper…and some more loo rolls (she thinks she’s the Andrex puppy). Tara also likes to supervise in the garden, we have a few unexpected holes along our fenceline where she has tried to play with next doors puppy…oh and a couple of holes where my rabbits hutch is..sorry…was, we think they were conspiring in an escape attempt by Jack our rabbit. It has however, saved me digging an area for my son’s sunflower plant and his peas.

All in all, Tara has been a wonderful girl to have around, she is a lot of fun, slightly scatty, definitely energetic, definitely got a massive heart, will love you and everyone around you, she gets on great with all the dogs we’ve come across so far, the cats who live next door have decided Tara is no threat and will happily wander across the garden but if they run she will chase…mostly to sniff their bums (that doesn’t go down well with a cat), she will play till you are tired and then want to play some more. She is quite happy to snuggle down on your knee for cuddles and sleep though and will take over your bed if you let her on the bed. She started off in our bed and could frequently be found in the morning under the covers with her head on the pillow, now she sleeps downstairs with Dougal since we have found that she will be good on her own. She can be left for periods of time, but she has not truly been on her own, she has always had our Dougal with her so not sure how she would handle being completely by herself if you had to leave her. I think though with a Kong and some peanut butter she’d be okay

I hope this has helped you in some way, and we congratulate you on picking such a wonderful little lass, she takes a piece of our hearts with her to Harris, we will all miss her. I hope you have many entertaining and loving years with our happy wee girl and we thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for giving her a new forever home.

Yours Sincerely



Brian and Lorraine Wright (Foster parents to Tara)

oh heck, I'm welling up reading that! How on earth you can let her go I don't know, but I applaud you for being able to do so I'm sure her new parents will be very appreciative of this letter, I know I would be. And I hope she has a wonderful new life.

Me too, I've got leaky eyes. I think it's a lovely touch, I know I would be appreciative if Tara was joining our family.

wow! such a brave and courageous letter to write. Good on you for being there when she needed you and being able to let her go when she needed you to..... I stand in awe of people like you I really do - dont stop doing what you do!

That is a lovely letter and I am sure the people taking on Tara will really appreciate it.

I feel you are going to find letting Tara go hard.

I think it's great for fosterers to give this kind of information direct to the new owners where possible so well done.

Thanks guys, I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, but now I think it is. It is going to be very hard to let go of Tara but with this we have some lovely memories of her. I think I may do this for future fosters as well. Keep a log of what they were like and where they went.

It is a totaly lovely idea, I cant imagine anyone not liking to get something lovely like that

I wish I had had something like that about Mia

Ur letter is beautiful. 2 of my girls are rescues, i would of loved a letter like this and im sure new owners would love this info on her background

That's a fantastic letter. I got a short note telling me about Abby and a picture of her when she was young and I loved getting them, I would have loved it even more if they had written the truth about her but that's another story