From Fighting Ring to Cuddle Monster: Eli and the Importance of Fostering

We all know the importance of adopting pets from animal shelters, and how choosing to bring home a dog from a pet rescue can be a life-changing experience for you, and a life-saving decision for them. But there is a vital step in the rescue-to-adoption process that often gets overlooked: fostering. For many fortunate dogs, particularly those of the puppy variety, the time they spend in a shelter environment is short. For others, weeks become months, even years, making their chances of finding a forever home more scarce. While staff and volunteers work tirelessly to meet the needs of the animals in their care, nothing can compare to the safety and comfort of a loving home, even if it isn’t your forever home. For a dog like Eli, a foster carer may be the key to the adoption equation.

Eli was just two years old when he was brought into the Brevard SPCA, one of more than 150 dogs that had been seized as part of a federal dog fighting case. Although he was physically unharmed, it was clear that his traumatic start to life had left him with serious emotional damage, and he was too terrified to leave his crate. For months, the staff and volunteers at the Brevard SPCA, one of 6,000 shelters and rescue groups that lead the national animal welfare organization, Best Friends Animal Society, worked patiently with Eli, gently showing him that not all humans are cruel. Though he did make progress, slowly learning to trust the people around him, he would retreat into himself whenever he met with a potential adopter. Enter Makenna Carew.

No stranger to fostering, Makenna has been fostering cats and kittens for several years. Alongside her two dogs, Koa & Nova, and impressively proportioned feline Loki, she has helped ready at least a dozen felines for their forever homes, but she had never taken on a foster dog before. With a full-time job and knowing how much time and effort dogs take throughout the day, Makenna had limited her fostering to cats, but with some time off at the end of 2025, she visited her local SPCA with a specific goal in mind.

“Before I went into the SPCA, I had looked for their longest resident. They always kind of spotlight them at the top of the page, and I saw Eli on there, and it said that he was questionable with cats. I had three foster cats at the time, and my own cat.”

Makenna felt confident that, given her experience with fostering and her own pets’ relaxed natures, she might be the right home to help Eli come out of his shell and demonstrate how he would behave around other pets, making him more appealing to potential adopters. He had been at the SPCA for almost six months, and she knew that it was vital that he get a chance to show who he really was.

“Dogs are so different once you take them out of that environment, and I wanted to give him a chance. So I brought my dogs in, and it went very well at the meet and greet.”

Within just a few hours, Eli’s transformation began, and after just a day or two, he was cuddling up in bed, playing with Koa and Nova, and in a moment that turned his life around, playing big spoon to Loki.

Foster carers like Makenna give dogs like Eli a chance to shine

Makenna shared the image on the SPCA of Brevard’s Facebook page, and it went viral, drawing thousands of likes, hundreds of comments, and, most importantly, the attention of Michael. After reading about Eli’s heartbreaking story, Michael reached out to Makenna and arranged to meet Eli with his housemate and his dog, and the rest, as they say, is history.

It took just three days for Eli to be adopted after spending months cowering in the shelter, thanks to Makenna and her fur family. Although saying goodbye is hard, according to MacKenna, it is absolutely worth it.

“ I cried. Ugly tears, like ugly, crying out loud,” she admits, but it helps that Eli’s new family has stayed in touch.

“ They keep in contact with me, and the other day they sent me a picture, and they celebrated his first birthday with them, which was his third birthday, and it's a little picture of him at a little party hat. He has just come out of his shell so much, and I'm so happy that the people who adopted him are the people that they are. This is my biggest accomplishment of the year. This made me feel the most proud of anything else that I did.”

Celebrating with Eli's new family, from Michael Criss

In just over two months, Eli has transformed. According to his new owner, Michael, being able to share his new home with another rescue dog, Kelce, has really helped him learn what being a dog is all about.

“A calm, routine home has allowed him to decompress and finally feel safe,” says Michael. “At first, he stayed in his corner by the couch, lying on his bed and looking unsure. Now he’s out with the family, chewing a bone, playing with his sister, or relaxing by his dad’s feet. He goes to the park every evening, loves his walks, and is wonderful with other dogs and kids. His love and playful personality are finally coming out, full of character and joy. We feel so blessed to have him as part of our family and can’t wait to see him keep growing into the amazing dog he’s meant to be.”

It’s far too easy to feel overwhelmed by the giant issues and start to think that one person can’t possibly make a difference to that big picture, but you only have to look at Eli’s face to see just how enormous an impact one person can have on a life. Without foster carers, dogs like Eli never get the chance to shine and show the world who they really are. Shelters with foster programs adopt are around 30% more successful in rehoming pets than those without,1 as they help reveal an animal’s true personality, as well as prevent the behavioral problems that come with long stays in a shelter environment. So if you think you could play a role in helping a rescue dog or cat find a loving forever home, reach out to your local animal shelter or rescue organization, or get in touch with the Best Friends Animal Society.

Fostering saves lives, and it’s worth the ‘ugly cry’!ThN