Rescue Tail / Marathon Campus

We have a very special adoption update story coming from the one and only local reporter, Gwen Filosa. Gwen adopted Sergio from our Marathon Campus in January. If anyone in the community knows Gwen, they know she’s a true friend to the animals! Here’s what Gwen has to say about Sergio:

“I’m the lucky dog owner who adopted a little mixed breed puppy from the Marathon Campus of the Florida Keys SPCA in January.

Sergio is now 7 months old and 40 pounds.  I’m so grateful for his foster family. They raised him up right. He came fully loaded: he could sit, stay, and handle business outside.

I never understood what a gift pet foster families provided until I adopted Sergio.

Florida Keys SPCA’s adoption system was so efficient and user-friendly. Plus they supplied a lot of basic items I needed right away.

I wasn’t looking for a puppy. When I called about another dog at the shelter, I was actually looking at another dog, but an SPCA worker texted me pics of this little fella. So, I went to the FKSPCA Campus in Marathon for a visit.

On our ride home from the Marathon Campus in January, I told the little guy, “Look, you’re cute but all puppies are cute. You don’t know me and I don’t know you. But you seem reasonable. I like it.”

I lost my boy Pedro in April 2021, after 13 years. He was my first dog and I was heartbroken. I leaned on people who gave even through the same pain. I found comfort in visiting my pals’ dogs and occasionally dog-sitting.

Now, when I think of Pedro, I smile and can feel the gratitude. Grief is the price of love. I’ve been told.

Watching Sergio’s firsts — I got to see him learn what raindrops are — has been astonishing. Watching his little personality take form — and handling, let’s call them, challenges —

Gratitude City: population us. Thank you, Florida Keys SPCA and everyone who’s ever fostered a dog in need of care.”

We couldn’t be happier for Gwen Filosa and Sergio, and the special place he now holds in what was once a broken heart. Our fosters are truly special people who offer unconditional love to an animal at our Campuses temporarily. Fosters help raise puppies like Sergio, and kittens so they can grow up in loving homes outside our shelters. Fosters take on medical patients in need of extra care before they’re ready for adoption. They shelter the animals that struggle in a shelter environment, and help provide the safety they need.

Hurricane season requires a very special foster need for all of our animals. Because our Marathon Campus is unsafe to house animals during a storm, we place all our animals into foster homes whenever a hurricane threatens the Florida Keys.  We also need to evacuate as many animals as possible to make room for those animals coming into our Key West facility.

When fostering an animal for a storm we ask that you keep the animal safe with you until the storm has passed.  Should you decide to evacuate, you must be willing and able to evacuate with the foster animal and return the animal to the Florida Keys SPCA after the storm has passed.

Learn more about our foster program by visiting us online at https://fkspca.org/volunteer/become-a-foster-volunteer/.