Woman fosters senior golden retrievers, runs 'retirement village' for dogs

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee woman has fostered so many senior dogs, people she knew said she operated a dog nursing home, but Harris Culbertson is calling it more like a "retirement village."

Over the past 18 years, she has fostered about 40 golden retrievers, most of them in the last phases of  life, WBIR reported.

Culbertson admits her time with the aging dogs can be short, but she gets a reward out of taking care of the elder dogs that don't have anywhere to go.

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"You can cry because they got put down alone at a shelter, or because they got to go trick-or-treating and have tea parties and eat more treats and popcorn than they can stand, and they went peacefully in their sleep. And I just prefer the latter," Culbertson told WBIR as she explained why she has a soft spot for the dogs that many people would overlook.

Culbertson has the help of her daughter as they make the dogs' lives as fun and as comfortable as possible.

"She's learned that there are dogs and humans out there who don't have families, and we can help that," Culbertson told WBIR. "Even if the time is limited in our human time frame, a year of living inside and being part of a family, for a dog, that's 10% of their life."

Cox Media Group