Costs, benefits, and risk: How we decided to take in a sick foster

I talk a lot about making thoughtful cost-benefit analyses and risk assessments in life with my dog (like whether we should put her on long-term seizure medication or have her wear a collar indoors or let someone pet her in public).

Here’s a recent example of our decision-making process before taking in our newest foster puppy, Ross, who came to us while being treated for an upper respiratory infection!

First: How we make risk assessments overall

• When assessing risk, I try to estimate not just 1) the likelihood of something bad happening if we make a certain decision but also 2) the impact it would have and 3) how easy it is to avoid or mitigate that risk.

• Most of the time we land in a middle ground with our risk tolerance. There are many things we enjoy and don’t want to (or reasonably can’t) give up entirely. But we can take simple steps to make them safer!

• We all bring individual variables to our own risk assessment equations. Some of us might find a given probability or impact reasonab…