From 'zombie' nights to Buckingham Palace: Meet the foster mum celebrating 100 Leeds Dogs Trust fosters

When Melinda Fox lost her own dog, a Patterdale called Jasper, she looked for a way to fill the gap without a lifetime commitment.

100 dogs later, her "temporary" journey has turned into a decade of life-saving work.

"We lost our Jasper about 10 months before we started fostering,” Melinda, or Lindy to her friends, recounts. “We were as a family considering whether to take on another dog when I saw a poster in our local supermarket advertising for foster carers. It seemed like the ideal solution to filling the gap, being able to have a dog but also having the flexibility to take holidays.

“Our fostering journey has been one of the most rewarding things I have done."

For most people, the sound of 100 dogs passing through their front door would suggest a lifetime of chaos. But for carer Lindy, it represents a milestone she never thought possible when she first started her journey in 2017.

This week, Lindy welcomed Nacho, a shy Dachshund cross, into her home - her 100th foster guest for Dogs Trust Leeds, and a significant achievement that has earned her an invitation to a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.

However, the path to the Palace wasn't always paved with wagging tails and easy afternoons. It required a special kind of resilience.

"When Nacho arrived, he was a little wary of everything”, Lindy revealed.

“We tried to keep things calm for him and allow him space to explore the house and garden. Allowing him to come around to us in his own time and to de-stress after what must have been a very confusing day for him."

Zombie nights, but incredibly rewarding

But persistence and patience have always been the cornerstones of a good dog foster parent, and traits Lindy had to lean on heavily when she was asked to take on one of her most daunting tasks to date: hand-rearing a litter of seven abandoned puppies.

Estimated to be just 10 days old when they arrived, the pups had no mother to feed them, leaving their survival entirely in Lindy’s hands.

What followed was a gruelling, around-the-clock marathon that she now affectionately refers to as her "zombie" phase.

"One of the biggest challenges is hand rearing," Lindy explained. "I was asked if I would take a litter of seven puppies that had been abandoned. They required feeding and toileting every three hours until they were three weeks old, and we could begin weaning.

“At night time, I slept on the sofa with alarms set to wake me to do the feeds. Although it was exhausting and I was like a zombie at the end of those two weeks.”

But with the efforts come the rewards of seeing the result of her fostering care: “I would do it all again in a heartbeat as watching those puppies thrive and grow into strong, independent puppies made it all worthwhile."

And how has Nacho now fit in with that calm, patient manner Lindy extols?

"I think the morning after he arrived was when we started to see his personality start to appear,” Lindy reveals. “He greeted me first thing with a waggy tail, and later he was happy to curl up on the sofa with me. His personality has continued to shine, and he is the most adorable, loving little dog."

As Lindy prepares for her royal appointment in London, she isn't hanging up the lead just yet.

"We are always ready to take on another dog,” Lindy responded when asked about what’s next once Nacho leaves home, “but we are having a small break due to looking after a family member's dogs, and we have a few days in London as we have been invited to a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace as a guest of Dogs Trust.

“I'm sure that dog 101 will not be far away."