Isabel Klee has gained more than 1 million followers on TikTok, sharing her experience fostering dogs. The 33-year-old began fostering when she was 25. She says it was a cheap and easy way to have a dog of her own while she figured out her life in New York.
"I would love to say I did it out of the goodness of my heart and to relieve shelters of their overpopulation crisis," Klee says, "but I really just did it because I was broke and wanted a dog of my own."
Now, 35 foster dogs later, fostering has led to her new memoir, Dogs, Boys, And Other Things I've Cried About.
Just weeks before her book's release, Klee couldn't resist picking up a temporary foster dog who needed her help. Gracie, a long-haired gray Chihuahua mix, is a medical rescue with diabetes and glaucoma that have left her completely blind.
Gracie's been with a foster family – friends of Klee's – for four months with no adoption interest. When her friend jokingly mentioned that Klee should take Gracie and try to get her adopted, Klee didn't hesitate.
"Usually the little ones go so fast even if they have health issues," Klee says. "She's so sweet and perfect, it's actually weird she hasn't been adopted yet."
Klee believes that people are hesitant to adopt Gracie because of her diabetes. She hopes that by taking her home and showing her audience both Gracie's sweet demeanor and how to administer her insulin, it'll make treating the disease less intimidating to potential adopters.
In her memoir, Klee writes that when she was five she wanted to be a dog. She went as far as eating her meals on the ground and walking on all-fours: "to the point where my preschool teacher called my mom and said you have to get this girl a dog because the obsession is next level," she says. That's how her family got their first Golden Retriever, Ruby.
Her first dog as an adult is Simon, a Jindo mix with a thick tan coat. He was meant to be another of her fosters.
"But I remember waking up one morning and just realizing that I cannot give this dog to somebody else," she says. "I had not felt that way before that. And I had not felt that way since then with any of my foster dogs."
At the time, Klee didn't know about Simon's complicated epilepsy. "If I had known, I probably would not have adopted him. But I'm glad that I didn't know because I would have missed out on my soulmate," she says. "He's the reason why I foster these more difficult dogs, because he's a more difficult dog."
Klee says Simon has taught her how to live with the emotional highs and lows of rescue and not to shy away from having difficult conversations with her online audience because, as she's recently learned, not every foster story is a success.
Last December, she took in an elderly dog named Zero. He had a slew of medical issues, including dementia, which Klee would only discover after bringing him home. When it became clear that he wasn't going to improve, the rescue involved with Zero made the difficult decision to put him down.
Klee was devastated. "I felt like I failed him and my audience who really believes in me," she says. "Sometimes the reality of the situation is that you can't help every dog. And this dog, it was his time."
She decided to adopt Zero before he was euthanized. "It was beautiful that I barely knew this dog, but I loved him. And I got to be there in his final moments and finally see him at peace," she says.
After Zero, Klee took a break from fostering, but when she was ready to come back, Simon was by her side. She's dedicated her book to him:
"For my Simon: Thank you for everything. I promise I will be repaying you every day of your life for being the one constant in mine."
Simon was the best foster brother to Gracie, Klee says. She's still waiting to be adopted.
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