Puppies thrive thanks to foster volunteer’s courage

What if you’re terrified of needles, but you’re also fostering puppies whose lives depend on treatments that require them? That’s not a hypothetical question — it’s a situation Tori Hodgson faced when she signed up to foster three puppies through Best Friends to nurse them through parvovirus.

Fear not, though, because Tori’s heart gave her the courage to give her foster puppies the care they needed. Of course, she was only doing what foster volunteers do: save lives. Best Friends’ goal is for all shelters nationwide to reach no-kill, and people who step up to foster pets, either with Best Friends or any animal shelter or rescue organization, play a vital part in reaching that goal.    

Before her foray into fostering, Tori first started volunteering with Best Friends as a driver, giving rides to pets from animal shelters to the Best Friends Pet Resource Center in Bentonville, Arkansas. When a large group of beagles she was driving needed foster homes, she and her husband, Craig, stepped up. Their first foster charge was one of those beagles, a pup named Cherry. When Cherry’s first adoptive home didn’t work out, Tori and Craig decided to adopt her themselves.

Tori got the call again when Best Friends took in a mama dog and her five puppies, who were already weaned and eating on their own. While Best Friends staff worked on spaying the mom and finding her a family, they placed her puppies in two different foster homes. Tori volunteered to take three of the pups.

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The day after bringing the three puppies into their house, though, one puppy’s health began to deteriorate. The puppy, named Hamilton, was extremely lethargic. He was vomiting, and he had diarrhea. Meanwhile, the other foster volunteer reported similar symptoms in the two puppies she was caring for.

Best Friends’ veterinary team worked fast to examine the puppies and run some tests. The diagnosis? Parvo.

Parvo, short for parvovirus, is a highly contagious disease that can be fatal in unvaccinated dogs. It can get dangerous quickly, especially among puppies who aren’t eating. “That can cause their blood sugar to drop and trigger seizures,” says Kayla Harmon, Best Friends foster program coordinator. Because of the puppies’ shared symptoms and proximity to each other, the veterinary team treated all the puppies in the litter for parvo.

While the veterinary protocol for the puppies was multilayered, one of the main treatments involved giving them subcutaneous fluids (supplemental fluids delivered under the skin) to prevent dehydration. The delivery vehicle? A needle.

[Foster volunteer’s dedication helps puppies beat parvovirus and thrive]

Kayla could teach Tori how to administer the fluids at home, so she asked whether Tori would be willing to try it. Now, Tori has a history of passing out in the presence of needles. But without revealing how nervous she was, Tori took the needle as Kayla held the puppy and, under Kayla’s guidance, successfully delivered the fluids.

What motivated Tori to do it? Her foster volunteer heart. “I can’t explain what happens when you take on the responsibility of fostering,” says Tori. “Not only do you get attached to these precious babies quickly, but I had also made a commitment to help.”

Administering the fluids under Kayla’s watchful eye gave Tori confidence to do the treatments back at home. “You can’t hesitate,” explains Tori. “You have to be confident in what you’re doing.”

For the next five days, Tori not only gave the three puppies fluids but also probiotic paste and other medications. Fortunately, the puppies could be kept together in the same room to recover. Her resident dogs, however, had to be separated.

To keep everybody safe, Tori practiced rigid sanitation practices. Twice a day, she washed the puppies’ bedding and towels and mopped their area. She scrubbed her hands often and changed her clothes every time after handling the puppies. Even though her own dogs are vaccinated, she didn’t want to take any chances.

Two weeks later when the treatment was complete, Hamilton and his siblings were healthy again. They’d survived parvo. Tori brought them back to the pet resource center, where they were spayed or neutered and soon adopted. Because this litter was extra special to Tori and Craig, they were thrilled when two of the puppies were adopted by their friends.

Tori admits she’ll probably always have a thing with needles but says it felt good knowing she could overcome her fear when needed. “It’s a similar feeling to when you’re a mom to a human baby, and you know you’d do anything for them,” she says. “These foster puppies quickly feel like your own babies, and you’d do anything to help them.”

Fostering puppies, she adds, is so rewarding that she hopes readers will — no pun intended — give it a shot.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.