| I had stopped work in June. The kids were pestering me to get a puppy now that I had free time to train a dog and I told them maybe after Jim and I get back from Europe we can look. Huricaine Katrina happened just weeks before we left. We heard about all the animals that had been separated from their families and thought about fostering one of them. When we got back from Europe I put the kids off again by saying we had to wait until after I went in to Jury duty. I do not want to get a new puppy and not be able to be home round the clock for it. I was summoned to jury duty on a friday, I called thursday night and was told to come in on monday which was halloween... I went and was excused, on my drive home I stopped at the humane society and found it was closed on Mondays. Tuesday my daughter and I went and we looked at all the dogs. They had so many that had heartworms that needed to be in a quiet non active home. Not our home ... Moxie, Twyla at the time, was up front and she was listening to everything, she would make eye contact and go nuts wagging her tail and jumping up with her paws on the rails.There was a baby crying and she would cock her head this way and that. I said this dog is smart look at how bright her eyes are. While we were looking at her a woman who worked at the humane society ( Sheri) came by and asked if we were interested in Twyla I said yes she is so smart! We took her outside and played with her, or watched her play. She was so friendly, and playful we fell in love! We went inside and told them we were interested in her, Then someone said oh no another family has a hold on her... my heart dropped, I really wanted this puppy. We went home and I was in a funk for a day, two days later Jim said Hey Sally there is a message on the machine from the humane society about that dog you wanted. The people who adopted her brought her back! I called the number and it was towards the end of the day but we made arrangements to go get her the next day. We brought dusty and mary ann to meet her. Mary ann ignored her as I knew she would and dusty loved her and played and they all were very nice to each other. We filled out the papers and I held her on my lap the whole time. I wasnt going to let her go.We had to sign papers stating that if the owners came forward we were to turn the dog over. I signed and hoped that no one would come forward. I like to think that she was so young, her last family may have just given up thinking the worse. I also like to remind myself that these people in New Orleans had no idea when they left their homes with their pets in them that they would not be able to go back within a day or two. We fostered Moxie up until new years eve when she became ours. We had her sleeping in a crate by our bed for three nights, she was sleeping through the night, not needing to go outside, so I let her sleep with us, she snuggeled right up against me with her head on my shoulder and her body under the blanket. She is so crazy, active and fun to have around.On new years eve we drank a bottle of champagne and toasted to Moxie, our new baby. The champagne was mums dvx which comes with a tiny brass champagne flute which we added to Moxies collar. She was a breeze to house train. but then she was 10 months old when we got her... |
