Written By Ruth Ann Ruiz
Features Editor
She calls herself Fox the Dog Dealer — Fox because when she was a child, her daddy nicknamed her Fox and Dog Dealer because she has developed a knack for fostering dogs and finding an adoptive home for each dog.
Natalie “Fox” Masiel was busy with work as a massage therapist and group fitness leader and then came that big, dreaded thing we don’t like to think about too much anymore — “The Pandemic.” The lockdown meant she didn’t get to work with her clients, and she found herself looking for something to keep busy.
Boredom led Fox to find her purpose in 2020, and she started working with Houston animal shelters.
“I started with a mama cat,” Fox said. “The cat had her kittens in our bathtub. When we went out for dinner, there were four kittens and when we got back, there were six,”
Out of that experience with caring for a mamma cat and newborn kittens in her bathtub, Fox went on to foster a couple more mama cats. Then she took in kittens and puppies, which lead to her fostering full-grown dogs.
Since she began fostering, she has moved from Houston to Galveston, and in 17 months of living on the island, Fox has fostered 50 dogs. None of the dogs she’s fostered have gone back to living in the shelter. They’ve all gone to loving homes.
Her most recent foster that found a home was a huskie named Rose. Rose went to a Galveston City Council meeting and, lo and behold, someone at the meeting fell in love with Rose.
The Galveston animal shelter, overseen by the Galveston Island Humane Society, is overflowing with pets who need new homes. Some of these animals sit in crates all day and night and get only two breaks from their crates, according to Fox. To help find homes for the pets, the shelter partners with foster caregivers like Fox.
To foster a dog, Fox had to go through an application process. When a dog comes to her, it is her job to promote the dog as being a lovable pet who would fit into someone’s life. She does this through social media.
With a dog at her home, she makes sure to give it lots of love and takes time to have the four-legged friend pose for many photos which go up on her Facebook profile. From there, her friends share her doggy posts, and lo and behold, someone sees the post and falls in love.
Then the interested future dog owners go through their own application process at the shelter, and if it all goes well, the dog is sent to his or her new home.
All dogs that are fostered through Galveston’s animal shelter, according to Fox, have had all their shots and are either spayed or neutered.
Fostering can last for a week or two but there are some people who just want to foster for a day.
According to Fox, the Galveston shelter will allow people to foster for a day or a weekend. Shelter staff call these arrangements “doggy dates”. On a “doggy date” the person doing the fostering will take the dog to the beach, hang out on the Strand or go to other dog-friendly places, giving the dog lots of exposure to the public and take plenty of good photos.
Finding long-term homes for the pets is one motivation for fostering dogs, but pet fostering is more than just a marketing ploy.
“City shelters cannot turn any animals away, and, sadly, shelters remain overcrowded and in desperate need of fosters. Fostering is the gap between an animal being placed in the shelter before being adopted into a loving home.
Fostering makes the animal much more highly adoptable because it helps them to decompress by feeling loved and cared for and helps then to socialize, Fox explained.
If people realized how critical fostering is, more people would do it.
Every city has shelters and rescues in need of fosters. Please find an animal shelter or rescue and, start saving lives today, because fostering truly saves lives,” said Fox.
While I interviewed her for this article, she had Mary Jane in her home as a foster dog. At four years old, Mary Jane is considered an older dog, and she has heart worms, which makes her difficult to adopt.
Mary Jane bonded very well with me. She snuggled up by my side throughout the interview and even poised for a photo with me.
If you are interested in learning more about the Galveston Island Humane Society , you can find it at https://www.galvestonhumane.org
If you’re interested in fostering a pet from the Galveston Island Humane Society, please email foster@galvestonhumane.org.
Again, if you’re not in Galveston, there are shelters in communities across the county with animals that need fostering or adoption.
The Galveston Island Humane Society is about to have its biggest fundraiser of the year, the 22nd annual Paws Gala, on September 28. You can find more information about tickets to the gala at https://www.galvestonhumane.org/events, and you can learn about other ways to support the shelter by reaching out at https://www.galvestonhumane.org/contact.
