How do you measure a year in the life of fostering?
In tongue licks? In vet trips? In good-byes and happy endings?
In lake swims? In bath times? In laughter and tears…
Pop a cork, today is our one-year blogiversary! We can hardly believe it’s been a whole year since we started this journey, but at the same time we can’t believe it’s been a year already…it seems like just yesterday I was typing “how to start a blog” into the Google-machine (yes, I really did that).
I started this blog primarily as a way to chronicle our misadventures as we navigated this world that was new to us, this world of animal rescue and dog fostering. It seemed so foreign, and like such a huge undertaking. We were wicked intimidated, but somehow the idea of writing it all down made it less scary.
The other main reason I wanted to blog about our foster dogs was to help potential adopters get to know them. I remembered that when we were searching for Oscar, I scanned through hundreds of online dog profiles. While I skipped right over the ones that had bad photos little-to-no information beyond age, sex & breed, and I found myself drawn to the ones who had detailed profiles that told a story about the dogs’ personalities, good quality photos and sometimes even videos. So I wanted to write a blog that would make our dogs irresistable to me as a potential adopter, if I came across a link on a dog’s online profile.
Instead of summarizing the last year (which would probably take me another year to do), and after yesterday’s post that apparently left some of you in tears (sorry about that), let’s have some fun!
I want to start with one of my favorite things to do when checking our blog stats – search term results. WordPress keeps track of what people type into the Google-machine to get to our blog. I’m pretty sure that even if our blog comes up in the search results, they have to actually click on the link and visit the blog for the search term to count. So, even if these folks were looking for something completely different than a blog about foster dogs, perhaps they got a little chuckle out of a funny dog story before they continued on their way. Here are some of my favorite search terms that have led people to our blog over the past year:
himym dog pie (Not sure where the “dog pie” part comes in, but I’m pretty sure “himym” is from this post. Love that show! )
dogs running all over the world (Oh, if only the world was full of responsible dog owners, this wouldn’t happen!)
river of pee (Um, gross…but yep, I can see how that might have happened.)
why are dogs better than people (How much time have you got?)
i took all the dogs (If you’re a Hyperbole and a Half fan, then this image is already in your head…)
can you take a dog who isn’t well behaved to the dog park (I hope that after reading this post, they learned that the answer to that question is NO!!!)
anal infection swag (I don’t know what they were searching for, but I hope this post helped answer their questions)
the importance of support from your friends (ain’t it the truth)
fostering through agape (Maybe one of you out there is considering joining the Agape family? Just maybe?)
dipping dogs for tricks in a hole (Huh??)
happy birthday donkey (Double huh???)
And my favorite search term result of all time….
why is fostering dogs important (We must be doing something right!)
OK, so now I have to know…have any of you stumbled on our blog “by accident,” and if so, what were you originally searching for? Feel free to fess up down in the comments, and thanks for sticking around!
In looking through our search results, I deduced that the Google-machine must take comments into account as well as the text in our posts. On that note, I thought it was interesting (thought not really at all surprising) that our top commenters all also happen to have blogs of their own (check them out over in our Blogroll). Unfortunately WordPress only keeps track of comment statistics for the last six months instead of the whole year, but you get the idea…
Thanks to everyone who joined in the conversation by leaving comments. I’ve learned a lot from your advice, and I feel like I’ve gotten to know some of you (and your fur-babies) quite well by reading what you have to say. Also, you guys have absolutely cracked me up!
And now for some “fun by numbers”!
Number of dogs fostered: six
Number of foster dogs we’ve wanted to keep furever: six
Number of happy endings (so far): five (Barney, Tucker, Kaylee, Roxie, & Molly Tamale)
Number of adoption/returns: one
Quickest adoption: two weeks
Longest tenant: eight months (…and counting)
Number of trips to the vet with a foster dog: six (never a dull moment at Foster House!)
Number of posts: 188
Total number of blog views: 33,199 (wow!)
Highest number of views on one post: 302 (The Return of the Tamale)
Least viewed post: Our second post ever, Officially Applied, and our first holiday post, Thankful, were tied at 27, followed by Tucker Sees a Ghost at 33 (Wait, seriously, only 33 of you saw Tucker Sees a Ghost? Go check it out right now, that dog was hilarious!)
Most views in one day: 341 (A New Record – fitting, huh?)
Blog subscribers: 61
HBAMF Facebook followers: 390 (can we make it to 400 by Monday??)
Number of chewed-up pieces of furniture: three
Large-scale rescue efforts in our area: two (Operation Sweethearts and Operation Freedom)
Number of foster dog escapes: three (Tucker’s Big Adventure…never really mentioned the other two, have I?)
Number of successful recoveries: three (whew!)
Surprise fosters: one
Number of collars: nine
Training classes: three (Dogs & Kat, we are eternally grateful!)
Times I’ve doubted myself: more than I care to admit.
Times I’ve regretted becoming a foster mom: zero.
Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat.
Thanks for sticking with us during the first year of our foster adventure!
Whaddaya say, shall we go another year?
Let’s do this…
~