Dear Mama,

by John Flores

After I adopted Fletcher, fostering became quite easy for me from an emotional standpoint. I knew Fletcher represented that last member of my pack for a good while and in turn it took any thoughts out of keeping any fosters in the future. Call it putting up a wall or whatever you want but it’s how I was feeling. I even took in a foster named, Justice, who was set to be euthanized the day I picked her up and as awesome as her story was I never thought about writing her a letter. It’s not that I didn’t want to but it just never happened.

It was happening…I was beginning to feel numb to fostering and it was becoming a “job”…until Mama Jelly and Baby Bean showed up at my doorstep. Mama Jelly was found as a pregnant stray that ended up having 3 babies and only 1 survivor. I have love for all the fosters that have been in and out of here but I fell in love with Mama Jelly. She found her forever home this past Sunday and this is my letter to her….

Dear Mama,

I don’t even know where to begin. The past 7 weeks with you have been nothing short of amazing. I remember the first day you showed up at my door with your 1 week old baby. You were scared, nervous and would not walk. You growled at me anytime I looked at your baby and you wanted nothing to do with me. I didn’t blame you. You had been on the streets, lost 2 of your babies and now you were in your 2^nd foster home. Briana decided you and your baby needed names that went together so she picked Mama Jelly and Baby Bean for the two of you. You never growled at her. In fact, I think you started liking me more when she showed up.

You weren’t even here a week before we noticed that one of your boobs seemed blocked up. We gave you warm baths and put a warm compress on it to help relieve it but it didn’t work. We ended up having to send you in for emergency surgery which left it up to us to take care of Baby Bean and bottle feed her. I’m so glad I had Briana with me because she showed me how to bottle feed and she stayed up for about 24 hours bottle feeding Bean while you were recovering. We weren’t sure if you would be able to nurse again or if you would even want to so I was prepared to take care of your baby while you healed up. But being the fighter you are, you were back nursing in less than 2 days. We put a shirt on you and since you only had one baby to feed, missing one nipple wasn’t that big of a deal.

As the days went on I noticed something about you. You were perfect….aside from wanting to walk on a leash and making me carry you just about everywhere, you were perfect. You never made a fuss, never destroyed anything in the house, got along with every single dog in this house. In fact, your energy was so calm that Fletcher didn’t even notice you on the couch the first time he met you. That’s saying a lot because we all know Fletcher doesn’t like change that much! You actually got the nickname around here as “Doggy Prozac” because you made everyone in the house so much calmer. In fact, you were so perfect that I just left you with Wally when you were done nursing Baby Bean. Out of all the fosters I’ve had you were only the 4^th dog that’s been able to do that. You were perfect…so perfect I thought about keeping you. In fact, you were so perfect you couldn’t stay at my house any longer. People needed to see you and the best way for that to happen was to bring you to Priceless Pets so you could be seen by more people. You weren’t the first foster I’ve had to bring there but you were definitely the hardest. I stayed 5 hours with you your first day there and you looked terrified. You were shaking, still wouldn’t walk on a leash and it wasn’t until a little girl got in your crate with you and gave you love that you started to relax a little bit. I was hoping someone would just come adopt you so I didn’t have to leave you there overnight but nobody came. It was so hard to leave you there that I never came back in to say bye. I knew if I did, you were going to go back with me but this is the hard part of fostering. The “letting go” part….which I thought I had grown numb to never left. I had just built up a wall and in 7 weeks you knocked that wall down. Not your baby, but you.

When I got home, I checked my Instagram and there were TONS of messages inquiring about you. I talked to each and every one of them but there was this one that stuck out. Her name was Courtney and she had just lost her Lulu in February. Lulu had a brother named Ziggy and it was clear that the whole family was missing Lulu. They had tried to find Ziggy a new sister but nobody was quite like Lulu. She was like you, perfect. And it’s hard to replace “perfect” and impossible to replace a family member but as she was following your journey with me she realized everything I was describing about you were the same things she loved about Lulu. As soon as she saw your picture with the little girl in your crate she sent me multiple messages until she made sure I saw at least one of them. They HAD to meet you the next morning so they drove over an hour, early on a Sunday morning to come meet you.

You seemed a little nervous when you met Courtney and Sam (her husband) but you went to them anyway. Within minutes you had cuddled up to both of them. And when Sam came back with Ziggy your tail started wagging and then you did something with them that I had not seen you do in the 7 weeks we’d been together…you walked with them. And within a few seconds, you smiled for the first time in days. I knew at that exact second this was your family I was just hoping they felt the same. And they did. It took everything I had to not cry in front of these people I had never met but in the middle of them filling out the paperwork, you came over to me and you gave me the biggest kiss. I don’t even know if they saw. If they did, they let me have that moment with you. And then you left with your new family. You never looked back at me and you never hesitated to leave with them. You found your family but what I don’t think you understand is that you saved them. The way they described Lulu, it’s almost as if Lulu herself led them to you.

From being a pregnant stray to having one surviving baby. From a bout with mastitis to an emergency surgery. From a tough spay to having to stay the night at Priceless Pets…all resulted in this. I don’t know how much of your life you spent taking care of yourself but it’s all in the past now. You’ve gone from Mama Jelly to Baby Jelly as you will now be taken care of for the rest of your life with your new family. I promise Briana and I will be coming to see you from time to time.

And I guess I should thank you, too. Thank you for getting me back to where I needed to be. In fact, I think I’m going to write that letter to Justice soon.

We love you Mama. Enjoy your new home, sweet girl.

P.S. I just got a text from Briana and she told me to tell you she loves you and she misses you.

Love,

John, Penny, Elvis, Wally, Snack Pak and Fletcher

John Flores

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