Patch Editor (Me!) Becomes Foster Pet Parent to Bruno

Introducing Bruno, our super-cute, super-sweet, super-cuddly foster dog! We picked up this little terrier mix at Humane Society Silicon Valley Thursday and now I’ll be bringing you Bruno tales/tails every day until we find his forever family.

Our neighbor says he thinks Bruno looks like the Disney dog who slurped up the spaghetti noodle. Tramp? Yeah, that’s it. He does look like a little Tramp from Lady and the Tramp.

Bruno’s last family realized they just couldn’t care for him so they brought him to HSSV to ask for help in finding Bruno a new family. Bruno’s a little man-shy, well, at least he was until he met my husband, Mike “Mr. Patch”. About three minutes after meeting us in Bruno's “suite” at HSSV, Mike sat down on the floor; Bruno assumed that was an invitation and promptly climbed onto Mike’s lap.

Turns out Bruno likes laps—a lot. He also is very responsive to a gentle human touch and likes snuggling. He has manners, and several hours into our meeting we still haven’t heard him bark. He met our neighbors already and though a little unsure of them at first, he warmed up enough to jump onto one offered lap.

This is our first time as foster pet parents; it’s our way of easing back into being dog parents. We’re still not ready to adopt another dog yet; our Chase, a 14-year-old Golden Retriever we adopted when he was 8-years-old came to us through the NorCal Golden Retriever Rescue Foundation. Chase died about 18 months ago, and he's still missed.

About a year after Chase died, our 17-year-old cat, Babbitt, died. We still have our 18-year-old cat, Rainey, and though he's doing well we still need some time to recover emotionally from the loss of Chase and Babbitt.

But that’s only why we won’t keep Bruno. Why we decided to become foster pet parents in the first place followed a Patch Give 5 day—our company’s day of giving us time off to volunteer in the community. A gaggle of us Patch editors spent a morning at Humane Society Silicon Valley in November and I was hooked.

When we’re ready to be a forever family again to a doggie, that’s where we’re headed. It’s such a beautiful, well-organized, well-run, happy place. In the meantime, we figure we can get some puppy love and help a little guy like Bruno by being foster parents.

So, I’ll be parading around Cupertino with Bruno who will be wearing his fetching orange “adopt me” vest, and I’ll be telling you every day something about the feller until we find his forever home.

If you’re interested in meeting Bruno, call me at 408-281-8273, or email me at anne.ernst@patch.com. To find out more about adopting Bruno, contact Casaundra Cruz at 408-262-2133, ext. 183.