Karen Cooper with one of her foster dogs.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Karen Cooper

Fostering senior dogs and cats takes a special kind of love as the animals are in their final days and a Vernon woman is doing her best to help the animals in her care feel loved.

Vernon resident, and retired BC SPCA employee, Karen Cooper dedicates her time and her own money to her fostering organization Rainbow Paws. She runs the non-profit out of her home and helps aging dogs and cats cross the rainbow bridge. She currently has 10 cats and small dogs in her care.

More than anything, Cooper wants the senior pets to have as many good days as they can before their lives come to an end.

“I'm the last person that they will ever hear, that they will ever feel the touch of. I always tell them when they go that they were a good boy or a good girl, that I love them," she told iNFOnews.ca. "I've never had a dog here be afraid when they've had to cross over. Never. They've all been very relaxed... they know they're safe here.”

Cooper saw a lack of resources for senior dogs to get the help they need in the Okanagan, so she opened up her heart and home as a safe haven.

Many of the pets her takes in have been surrendered by their owners. She doesn’t want any animals to be left to fend for themselves, so she does her best to care for them until the end.

“It's not about me,” Cooper says. “It's about giving them that send off with the dignity that they deserve, and maybe never got in their entire life.”

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Taking care of senior pets can come with an emotional toll, but for Cooper the benefits of caring for the animals and making them happy outweighs her grief. 

“What I do can be really sad, but it's also a blessing. I've been given this gift and it's something that I try to honour,” she said.

Those who want to foster a senior pet need to be committed to helping the animal no matter what.

“Not everybody is set up to foster, not everybody is able to make that commitment, because it is certainly a commitment," Cooper said. "Some people have no knowledge of pets. They might love them, they think they're awesome, but when you're working with a foster dog and they've been rescued, they've come with a lot of baggage.”

Cooper says she and her husband spend over $1,000 each month on vet bills, but still has to pay for the food, medicine and sanitary pee pads the pets use. Some of the pets she currently cares for were never taken proper care of before, so they need a lot of love, attention and physical help.

They sometimes receives donations, such as bones from hunters, a dehydrator to make dog treats and other various items, but the Cooper’s mostly pay for everything out of pocket.

She's confident Rainbow Paws is making a difference and there are fewer pets struggling in their final days of life although she admits she can't care for them all she's doing her best to make the end of life as good as she can for the pets that spend their final days in her care.

If you have a senior pet in need of a home or can help out with a donation of money or time, you send Karen Cooper an email at rainbowpawspetcarehome@outlook.com. 

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