Over the past month, Chancellor Mark Wrighton and his wife Risa Zwerling have enjoyed the company of Dodger, a six-month-old puppy they have been fostering.

Wrighton and Zwerling were connected to Dodger through the Open Door Animal Sanctuary. Prior to being brought to the animal shelter, the puppy suffered a shot in the back at point-blank range that missed hitting his spinal cord by about a millimeter. Many of the circumstances of his accident are still unknown.

“He was brought by someone who the papers called a ‘good Samaritan,’” said Zwerling. “It was a woman who claims she found him by Highway 30, dragging his hind legs. She left her name and phone number and address and none of that information panned out, so it seems that she might know something about what happened to him.”

Zwerling was motivated to help Dodger after seeing him featured on a television news program. “We have a golden retriever, Grace, who’s six years old, and we had a beautiful black Labrador before Grace, and I think it was seeing Dodger’s cute little Labrador face on TV that made me want to pick up the phone and call,” Zwerling said. “It was just very impulsive because I’m always complaining about being too busy and here I added to this to the list of things to do, but you know, you’re never too busy when you’re doing things that you like to do.”

Dodger’s company, though mostly joyful, has posed a few challenges for the busy couple. When he first came to their home, he still hadn’t regained the use of both of his back legs. Like most puppies, he also wasn’t entirely housebroken. But Zwerling knew what she had to do. “I pulled up the carpets and started taking him to physical therapy,” she said.

Although they have thoroughly enjoyed Dodger’s company, Zwerling realizes that it would be unrealistic for them to keep him indefinitely. Originally, she had joined the lengthy adoption list. “When I told [Wrighton] that, he kind of freaked out,” she laughed. “We have kind of a complicated life, and he didn’t think that we could manage a second dog, and I realized that he was kind of right. We travel a lot, we have a lot of fancy furniture in the house that we live in, and we are blessed with a very mature and calm [other] dog.”

In the end, Wrighton agreed to foster Dodger, and according to Zwerling, has loved spending time with the fun, exuberant puppy. “If you want to see something funny, get up at 5:30 and see him walking both dogs in the morning. It’s so funny…with the leashes crisscrossing and tripping him up,” she said. “He’s an animal lover also and a real softie. That’s why I knew when I volunteered even for the fostering that he would come around. It’s very cute to see how he’s gotten attached to him.”

Zwerling hopes the Open Door Animal Sanctuary gains more exposure for the wonderful way that it treats dogs. Open Door is a no-kill shelter that gives animals an environment in which they can live out the remainders of their lives. People are allowed to adopt from the shelter, but if not the dogs can live there happily and in peace. Zwerling would be interested in a team from the film and media studies department visiting the shelter one day to document the lifestyles of the dogs living there. “You know just like every student here has a name and story? Well, every animal there has the cutest name and the most heartwarming story,” she added.

The fostering period is now coming to an end, and Zwerling is helping the shelter interview candidates for full-time adoption, confident that either of the two finalist families would provide Dodger with a wonderful home. After her experience, she would suggest fostering to anyone who would like to make an impact in the life of an animal. “When you adopt an animal, it’s a huge commitment; it’s a whole life and a whole lifetime,” she said. “This is a way to make a difference and make an impact in the life of an animal without having to make a lifelong decision. It’s been fun and tremendously rewarding,. I’d probably do it again…just don’t tell the chancellor that I said that.”