By Timothy Q. Cebula - Berkshire Eagle Staff
EGREMONT -- As an English professor at the University of Houston some years ago, Bonnie Bassis was thoroughly
dedicated to her scholarly pursuits.
"I was very serious," said Bassis, who now lives in Egremont. "I read and studied, and I was very serious and very
tense."
She has since found a way to relax. It's been said that dogs can have a calming, healthful effect on their owners. Bassis
has six dogs: three of her own and another three who constantly rotate, because they are foster dogs she takes from
shelters and places with families.
Can we assume she is extremely relaxed?
"My life now, with these dogs, I find myself spontaneously smiling at all times of the day because I'm seeing something
so sweet," said Bassis, who also owns four cats. "I'm not tense. I'm happy. I don't read like I used to, but it's a good
tradeoff."
While she clearly loves her own three dogs, Bassis' true gratification these days comes from finding adoptive families
for the dogs she pulls from the Bilmar Veterinary Services in Great Barrington and other county shelters. In the year
and a half that she has run the foster home out of her house, she has placed about 30 dogs.
"I'm not a trainer or a breeder. I'm not a dog expert, so I've learned a lot," she said.
She discovered her new vocation about 18 months ago when she spotted a black Labrador retriever wandering
around downtown Pittsfield without a collar. "I wanted to get him out of the traffic," Bassis recalled.
Bassis took the dog to the Berkshire Humane Society, which referred her to the local animal control officer. She was
informed that the dog would be impounded for 10 days to give his owners a chance to come get him.
"I asked if I could keep him for 10 days, and they agreed. They advertised him during that time and nobody called.
Clearly, nobody was looking for this dog," Bassis said.
So Bassis advertised the dog herself, not as a stray looking for its owners but as a stray looking to be adopted. She
placed the dog within a week.
"I thought, gee, this is really nice," she said.
Then she took it to the next level.
Bassis received a permit from the town of Egremont that allows her to keep as many as three foster dogs at a time.
She invested untold amounts into dog crates, dog doors, pet equipment and toys, and an intricate fencing system in her yard, essentially customizing her home to create a proper halfway house for dogs.
She has developed a Web site -- aplaceforus.net -- to advertise the dogs, along with ads she places in regional
publications. She takes the dogs for daily walks on the Appalachian Trail and gives them weekly sessions with local obedience trainer Lois Platt.
Bassis devotes herself full time to her work, but it's hard to consider her work a business. Businesses don't willingly lose money.
She pays the shelter a fee to take the dog, then pays for the dog's veterinary needs, such as inoculations and spaying or neutering. She feeds them and cares for them as long as they are in her home, sometimes up to three months. Some dogs have even required costly surgical procedures.
But she asks her clients simply to reimburse her for the basic veterinary bills such as inoculations, and the $35 adoption fee. The other expenses -- such as surgeries that would make an adoption cost-prohibitive -- she eats.
When Bassis selects dogs from a shelter, she looks for the ones who don't "kennel" well. In their cages at the shelter, they may grow depressed or combative, attitudes that don't allow them to put their best paw forward when adoptive families come looking.
"I have a rigorous selection process for who I will give dogs to," Bassis said. Prospective owners will apply and then be interviewed. After the interview stage, Bassis usually visits their home in an effort to be sure the dog is going to a place for which he is well-suited.
Despite this meticulous scrutiny, the occasional mismatch is inevitable. In her home, Bassis reaches down to pet Susie
the chow. Susie was adopted recently, but her new owner returned her because she had developed a limp brought on by dysplasia.
"I would hate to be her daughter," Bassis said of the woman who returned Susie.
Still, Bassis regularly meets with success. Giving up the dogs could be a bittersweet experience, but Bassis -- the newly relaxed Bassis -- looks on the bright side.
"By the time the dog leaves, I know he's going to a good home where he's going to be loved and he won't have so much competition with other dogs," Bassis said. "I also know that I now have an opening to get another dog."