150. Stella

So yet another dog story... there are so many.

We were living in our small house in Encino, before we had adopted Miles and before we knew Arthur would be sticken with cancer. We were not looking for or needing another pet. It was labor day weekend and we were flying to Curtis parents' house in Tucson to visit for his mom's birthday. I was due to pick up Curtis at work on the way to the airport and had a couple of errands to run.

Some kids from down the street knocked on my door. They had lost their dog, again, and wondered if I had her. They didn't give their dog food or water so she often ran away. She knew I was a sucker for strays and always came by... this time I had not seen her. I had already told the children that if their dog ran away then I would not return her. They just didn't know how to take care of an animal.

I had a couple hours so I decided to run by the animal shelter and see if their little dog was there. Her name was Lizzy. The pound is a depressing place and all the dogs let you know it. It's loud and smells. There was one dog that sat quietly in the back of her cell during all the insanity. But is wasn't Lizzy. She wasn't there. I instantly feel in love with this quiet dog and just couldn't leave her behind. Without discussing it with Curtis, I adopted her. We would later call her Stella. Conveniently the shelter required Stella stay there for the weekend with a pick up on Tuesday.

As I hurried out of the pound to get to the airport and a man came walking up with the neighbor's dog, Lizzy, in his arms. What are the chances? I found Lizzy, but I couldn't give her back to the kids... they weren't taking care of her. I had a plane to catch. I ended up running Lizzy to a boarders. I hustled home, picked up Arthur and ran him to my mom's house for the weekend. I was so late.

When I finally picked up Curtis I made up some excuse for being late and probably broke several laws in order to make the flight. We ran through the terminal OJ style and just made it as they announced the final boarding. We took our seats, buckled up, sealed in a capsule that took off into the air, and then I told Curtis what I had done. In the scope of a couple hours we went from owning one dog to three. He wasn't happy.