My name is Matt Finnigan, and I'm new to the neighborhood. A Connecticut native, I moved to Somerville in 2008; my girlfriend Janine and I wanted to get a place together in Boston. In July, we moved onto Beecher St, with my 5-year-old German Shepherd, Wilma. If you are a regular at Beecher Park, you've probably seen us.

When I lived in CT, I had been a foster parent for Fidelco. They are a guide dog foundation near Hartford - the only in CT, one of the few ones that breeds their own dogs, and they only breed German Shepherds. They've been doing it for 50 years, and have done a lot of good work to increase independence for blind people. Their website gives a lot of information (and cute pictures), I could write pages about my own experiences as a foster and volunteer.

Wilma was my third puppy. Fostering generally starts when the puppy is 8 weeks old, and ends at around 16 months, when they leave the foster family to go back to Fidelco to work with the professional trainers. Wilma has a minor problem with her esophagus however, and because she has a heightened risk for aspiration pneumonia, she was dropped from the program and I was allowed to keep her. She's 5 years old now, very healthy and a great dog.

Last week, I received an email from Fidelco that Nora, my first foster puppy, has been retired. I raised Nora in 2001 - 2002, and she went on to become a guide dog in Philadelphia. Her blind person has apparently had poor health lately, and Nora hadn't been doing much work, so they decided to retire her. Typically, the original foster family is given the opportunity to decide if they'd like to have her back.

Janine and I had discussed this just last month, because I knew that Nora could be retired in the next few years. I didn't think it would happen so soon; but she said she'd be glad to try it; see if Wilma and Nora would get along, if we would have enough space, if there might be any other issues.

Yesterday, I drove to Bloomfield CT and saw Nora for the first time in 7 years. She looks and acts like she's half her age; she's very fluffy, she's a long-haired sable coat, with a lot of different colors in her fur. She jumped all over me, and then ignored me so she could sniff around the grounds at the kennel. Janine has dubbed her "Nora the Explorer", because she has no fear and wants to inspect everything - paths and gates, other people's doors, you name it.

Wilma and Nora have been getting along, which is great for two adult females. They're actually related - Nora's sire Troy was a very prolific dog in the Fidelco breeding lines, and he's also Wilma's grandfather. Neither one of them is particularly dominant (although most people at Beecher Park know that Wilma's style of play is to pretend other dogs are sheep and she's going to try to herd them).

I've added a couple of pictures of both of them to my profile - and the next time you're out and see me and/or Janine walking two big beasts, come on over and say hi. They're both friendly and very sociable.