A 3-month-old rescue puppy named Dezzy has become the latest rescue animal to enter Berkeley Heights-based Home for Good Dog Rescue’s unprecedented dog fostering program after surviving a series of dire circumstances as a stray in Georgia.
“It’s incredible that Dezzy has survived so much, and that she is ultimately on her way to the best life up here,” Sandi Esposito, Dezzy’s New Jersey foster, said. “The whole process is amazing to me. It’s all meant to be.”
Dezzy and her siblings, Chesapeake Bay Retriever mixes, found themselves alone after their mother was struck by a car. A rainstorm, subsequent flooding, and an encounter with a coyote claimed the lives of two members of the litter before they found sanctuary with Home for Good Dog Rescue’s southern rescue contacts.
Home for Good Dog Rescue (HFGDR) is a 100-percent foster-based, non-profit 501(c)(3) dog rescue established in 2010 based in Berkeley Heights, NJ. It rescues homeless dogs from high-kill shelters in the South, which are overflowing with unwanted dogs on the brink of being euthanized.
It then socializes, cares for, and provides them life-saving medical care at their rescue property in Aiken, SC, transports them to New Jersey, and nurtures them in a network of foster families while they await adoption into loving homes.
The Esposito family of Carlstadt, NJ is one such family.
“Like a lot of people, I told myself I couldn’t foster because it was too hard,” Sandi Esposito said. Although she herself adopted two dogs from Home for Good Dog Rescue, the possibility of fostering initially seemed intimidating, she explained.
However, when Home for Good became involved in relief efforts following Hurricane Harvey, bringing dogs northward to create shelter space and allow flood victims to reunite with their own pets, Esposito knew she wanted to act.
“I remember thinking, ‘now is my time to do something,” she said. And in September 2017, the Esposito family took in their first foster dog, a chihuahua mix named Charlie Brown.
“You could tell he had never known love,” Esposito said. “When he got to our house, he clung to us.”
Thanks to Home for Good Dog Rescue’s foster program, dogs like Charlie Brown enjoy all the benefits of domestic life prior to adoption.
“Fostering makes an enormous difference,” Esposito explained. “When we adopted our first dog, Dakota, I was so appreciative of all the work the fosters had done to train and house-break him. With every dog we foster, we try to pay it forward.”
And since leaving his foster home for permanent adoptive placement, Charlie Brown himself has grown into a happy, affectionate dog, who is thriving under the care of his new family.
“We absolutely love the experience,” Esposito said. “We’re doing something beneficial, something someone had done for us and our dogs. We became the bridge between where these dogs came from to where they were going.”
New arrival Dezzy now marks 28 dogs the Esposito family has welcomed into their home since first joining Home for Good’s program. However, it is not just the household’s human members that have played a role.
“I couldn’t do it without my own rescue dogs, Dakota and Lexi,” Esposito explained. “Our dogs love to play with the new fosters, but they also guide them and keep an eye on them.”
While Esposito does admit that saying goodbye to her beloved foster dogs is not always easy, she continues to find the experience worthwhile.
“Seeing the smiles on the faces of the adopters and the joy that they have when they find the right dog takes me back to where I was when I first adopted my dogs,” Esposito said. “It is so happy for me.”
And as survivor dog Dezzy begins her own search for a forever home out of Berkeley Heights, her foster urges others to get involved.
“The more fosters there are, the more dogs like Dezzy Home for Good Dog Rescue can save,” she explained.
To learn more about fostering, adoption, or becoming a volunteer or supporter, visit HomeforGoodDogs.org or call (908) 263-7358.
(above) Home for Good Dog Rescue foster Sandi Esposito welcoming a new dog at a recent event. She has fostered nearly 30 dogs through the organization’s program.
(above) Dezzy, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix, arrived in New Jersey from South Carolina to seek an adoptive home and is the latest animal to enter Home for Good Dog Rescue’s program.
