HOLLY IS STILL VERY COZY

This is our former Cozy, renamed Holly with her new Mom taken in the back seat of my car while torrential rains pounded the outside. Holly required a long transport from Charlotte, NC to Northern Virginia. The day was beautiful and the transport went smoothly until the last 3 minutes.

Holly's new owners agreed to drive the 3.5 hours South to meet me in Roanoke for the final hand off. I had driven to Greensboro, NC to meet the transport from Charlotte and brought the munchkin to Roanoke with me to meet her new family. I was very excited as this was the first time I got to do the final hand off to a new forever family. How wonderful it would be to have Cozy meet Mom, Dad, her new Grandparents and her new boston sibling in the field by the McDonalds at I81. I would take pictures, the dogs would meet on neutral ground, everyone would be smiling, a wonderful day.

That was my vision of the event until the last 3 minutes of the trip to Roanoke when the skies opened up and dumped visibility enhancing rain exactly over the designated McDonalds. I pulled in the parking lot and Holly's new family, all 5 of them pulled in almost immediately right next to me. I pointed to Cozy in my lap and motioned for her new Dad to slip from his front seat to mine to meet her. He happily did so, and in his effort to stay as dry as possible, he clobbered, and I do mean clobbered his head on the point of my car door. A very dazed and painful Eric fell into my front seat as Cozy jumped in his lap. I was just convinced he was going to pass out and have a concussion. He said he was fine, but he was showing high pain tolerance and he couldn't help rubbing his head. Eventually Mom slipped into my back seat unaware that her husband was now in a semi conscious state. It was there that this picture was taken.

We sat in the car for a few minutes hoping the rain would stop. In the next car over, we could seea very agitated boston wondering why in the world his people were sitting in a strange car with a strange dog and a stranger in the front seat. So, we abandoned the whole happy greeting, romping in the sun plan, exchanged contracts, belongings and the new family crawled back in their car with Cozy who proceeded to jump right in Quigley ( said Boston's) face which produced growls and snaps. So, they decided to put Cozy in her crate with her brand new bed. Did I mention that it was pouring down rain? We probably should have gotten wet at least long enough to let our traveler relieve herself but hind site is 20/20. Cozy proceeded to release her bowels all over the new bed to the point where it had to be thrown away. So much for my joyous meeting plan! And OF COURSE, 15 minutes later, the sun was out!

I received a very nice e-mail from Eric indicating that he did survive with a bump on his head, that after the initial meeting, Quigley and now Holly did indeed take up play stance and were wrestling continuously at last report.

So, a monsoon, a bump on the head, a ruined bed, and a growl or two later, Holly is home. A big thank you to her new family for not putting Holly back in my car two minutes later and for giving things time to work out and for giving our rescue a new forever home!

Maybe next time, there will be sun, fields, and joyous meetings, but you can't say my first family delivery was not memorable!