Volunteer Spotlight: Mike & Christine Schmitz

Mike and Christine Schmitz started their fostering journey with HSMO in 2019, when Mike brought their dog to the vet and saw someone helping load kennels in the parking lot. When he asked what she was doing and if he could help, she explained she worked with the foster program.

“Turns out, it was Sue Alkire, and I told her I’d always wanted to foster and would be back to do that when I retired,” Mike says.

“The day after he retired, we were here,” Christine recalls.

The Schmitzes have fostered dozens of dogs and puppies, and they say each experience is different. The length of each foster depends on what each dog needs, and no two experiences are alike.

“My biggest joy is seeing the joy on people’s faces and connecting these dogs with other people,” Mike says.

In the six years the Schmitzes have been fostering, they’ve helped nearly 200 dogs find their forever homes. The dogs in the photo above are fosters #191 and #192.

“We don’t want to forget any of the dogs we’ve fostered, so we have a list,” Mike explains.

Christine says her dream would be to have all of the dogs they’ve fostered in one room, just to see how everyone is doing.

“It’s been such a joy,” she says. “We get more out of it than you can ever imagine. We absolutely love it. When you bring a litter back [to the shelter], you look forward to the next one. At first it was hard, but it does get easier.”

Mike says his advice for those considering fostering is to give it a try.

“You can do it as much as you want or as little as you want,” he says.” You’ll enrich your own life so much more than you enrich the puppies’.”

Learn more about fostering by clicking here.