Ken Foster > Quotes

“And it made me nervous, because I'm the kind of person who should be kept away from romance, the way certain people should be kept away from guns or sharp knives.”
― Ken Foster, The Kind I'm Likely To Get: A Collection

“There's a strange intimacy between a lost animal and the person who finds him. In terms of time, what you've shared is tiny and insignificant, but that moment is a vital pivot in the animal's life, the line between his old life and a better, new one. In some cases that fine line is the one between life and death.”
― Ken Foster, The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind

“When you let animals into your life, even as a foster parent, you are making a promise that you will take
care of them for as long as it takes, until they find a home of their own. When they finally do leave, there's a part of them that stays with you and a part of you with them.”
― Ken Foster, The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind

“She's a pit bull," I told them, making sure to say it as matterof-factly as I could. But no matter how I said the words, the parents always took the children by the hand and led them away. People hear about pit bulls, but often they have no idea what they really are-that they used to be considered nanny dogs, trusted members of the family. Or that even when they do have issues, it's not with people but with other dogs. The breed may attract a higher number of dubious owners, but the breed itself should be judged on its own.”
― Ken Foster, The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind

“One of PETA's agenda items is the extinction of problem breeds like the pit bull; the claim is that making them extinct is the only way to protect the animals from abuse. Apparently the problem of abuse is not one that involves the behavior of the abusive human. Following this line of "ethical" thinking, the problem of divorce should be solved by banning marriage, and child abuse is best addressed by euthanizing children.”
― Ken Foster, The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind

“there's an old slang term in baseball: a dirt dog. Dirt dogs are scrappy. Dirt dogs have been around the block. they are hard working, and a bit rough around the edges. they never give up.”
― Ken Foster, I'm a Good Dog: Pit Bulls, America's Most Beautiful (and Misunderstood) Pet

“By the time I learned what a Pit Bull really was, it was too late; I was already in love. Of course I'd heard the stories, but I had never put these almost mythological urban tales together with the dogs in my neighborhood. I was living in Manhattan, just blocks away from a dog park, and dog watching was a spectator sport among those of us who were still dogless. There were dogs of every shape and size, but my eye kept going to the short, stocky, exuberant dogs that seemed like cartoons. You could tell by the gleam in their eyes they felt very lucky to be here, in the city, walking with the person they kept on the other end of the leash. Their heads were blocky and human. Their short coats made it seem like they were wearing costumes made of felt. It wasn't hard to imagine there might be a little person inside. And they were everywhere that there were people: in cafes, outside bodegas, eating at restaurants.”
― Ken Foster, I'm a Good Dog: Pit Bulls, America's Most Beautiful (and Misunderstood) Pet

“I did research online to see if I could find a rescue group that would take her, and instead I found Pit Bull Rescue Central (wwwpbrc.net), a clearinghouse of listings for pit bulls all across the country, all in need of homes, most with horrific
histories of abuse. The Web site, completely volunteer-run, offers information on the breed, on what to do if you have found a pit bull, and on how to test a dog's temperament; it also stringently screens applicants trying to adopt one of the listed dogs. To list a dog, you have to fax the vet records, including proof that the animal has been spayed or neutered. I have never seen so thorough a site-and all of the "staff" got involved with the breed the same way I did: by finding a stray pit bull whom no one else would help with or take off their hands.”
― Ken Foster, The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind

“Wiggly, that's the word most often used by pit bull owners to describe their dogs. Others are loyal, compassionate, devoted, affectionate, couch potato, courageous, lapdog, snugglepuss, heroic, kissy-faced, lovebug, bed hog, pansy, soul mate, family.”
― Ken Foster, I'm a Good Dog: Pit Bulls, America's Most Beautiful (and Misunderstood) Pet

“I sat her on my lap and drove across the Mississippi, where the SPCA was holding animals temporarily in large heated tents-the kind you see pitched in a neighbor's yard for a wedding. In the aftermath of the storm, they had rescued over 8,500 animals. Sixty-two percent were pit bulls.”
― Ken Foster, The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind