Don't know if I said this already or not... I had recently ordered a new hibiscus plant... it's a cajun hibiscus "Tres Bon"
When it's big enough to survive on its own, I'll plant it in the front yard next to Angie & Jessie's butterfly bushes, and name it Zoe.
Now, for Yamaha Gurl, and any others who weren't here five years ago or missed her annual gotcha day thread, here's the story of how my little princess brick-butt came into my life.
Five years ago, on a Friday afternoon in January, I was sitting in my home office teaching a class on the internet, as I do most days with my job. In this case, I had one student in the class, and he kept getting called away to take care of business. While I waited for him to return, I'd browse GT. There was a post in Everything Else Greyhound about an iggy in FL who needed a home. If she didn't have a home by Saturday (the very next day), her owner would be forced to take her to the pound. She'd tried all the IG rescue groups, but the little iggy was 12yrs old, and the groups told the owner that a 12yr old was unadoptable because "no one wants an older dog."
I read that line and thought ME! I DO! I LOVE senior iggies -- it's the young ones I can't stand! The post ended with a couple pictures, and when I saw the first one, my heart went THUD as I fell head over heels in love. My lovable nuisance had been gone about 4 months at that point, and I needed another little dog in my life. I wanted it to be this one.
So I started replying to the post, saying that if we could find a way to get the little girl from FL to GA, I'd give her a home. Then my student came back on the phone, and I had to pay attention to my job, and never got to hit "send" on my post. Finally hung up the phone about 530 my time, re-read my post, finished the sentence I'd been writing and hit 'send'. Got a message back immediately telling me the thread I was replying to could not be found or did not exist, or whatever.
Had I dreamed it? Nah, couldn't have. Turns out, the mods had moved it to OT because it was about an IG, not a grey. When I found it again, it had almost a dozen replies to it (there had been no replies to it when I first found it), all offering advice, offering to contact iggy groups, etc. If a group took the little girl, I'd be up a creek - couldn't afford an adoption fee, was out of state from the group, etc. So I started rallying my GT iggy friends - the ones who work with rescue - to make sure that if she *did* go to a group, I'd have references and folks who would advocate for me. And I posted my post anyway, saying that if we could get her to GA I'd give her a forever home.
Turns out that the little one was in Lake City FL, 30 miles north of Sebring. My dog-sitter's husband was in Sebring that weekend at an airshow, and would be driving right by Lake City on his way back to GA. I called my dog-sitter, she called her husband, he was agreeable. The person who posted about the dog contacted the dog's owner, we emailed back and forth, made a few million phone calls, and by 11pm that night, Zoe had a future home, and a third owner.
I don't know much about her early years, but when she was 7, her original owner took her to the vet's office to have her put down because she was "old and useless." So I'm thinking she was used as a breeder, but she was very well-socialized and gave no indications of abuse, so I'm not thinking puppy mill. The vet tech said "if you don't want her, I'll take her." and the original owner handed her over, along with pedigree, puppy pics, and assorted other stuff. Vet tech gave her a good life, moved with her up to Ohio and worked on a horse farm for awhile. Lost her job at the horse farm, which meant she also lost her housing. Moved back to FL and stayed with her Mom and her Mom's cats. Had found a new job and a new apt, but it was a no-pets place, and her mom didn't want to keep Zoe (I got the impression the daughter had a lifetime habit of dumping pets on her mom). So Mom gave daughter an ultimatum. Find your dog a new home before you leave on your cruise next Sat, or take her to the pound.
Daughter posted on a horse board she was a member of, and one of the board members saw the post, wasn't working that Friday, and made it her mission to find Zoe a new home. Someone on another horse board where she posted it referred her to GT, and the rest, as they say is history. Through the magic of the mystical Intarwebz, the little girl found a new home. The mom was willing to keep Zoe until Monday, the daughter left on her cruise with her boyfriend on Saturday, and Monday morning Jon & his brother Ron stopped in Lake City on their way home and picked up my princess.
I had to almost pry her out of his arms when they arrived in ATL. The two guys had fought all the way home over whose turn it was to drive and whose turn it was to hold Zoe. If she wasn't in their laps, she was sleeping on top of a garment bag in the back seat. When they'd stop for gas, if Jon got out of the truck, she stare out the window and watch him all the way into the gas station and all the way back to the car. He remained one of her favorite people for the rest of her life.
And this is the picture that started it all - how could I *not* fall in love?
