Zoey Dog

We hope this finds all of you well and happy. We are thinking of all of you particularly today as we celebrate not only a lovely Fourth of July weekend, but also our One Year Anniversary with Zoey in our family. We took the attached photo for you last night so you can see how she still loves her original (from Tom's house? of Joyce's? please remind us) comforter and her peaceful "presence" in our family room at the end of the day. (In the photo, you can see she is almost sound asleep.... :-)

After one year, she continues to "unfold" for us, revealing more of her wonderful personality, and we are all enjoying our shared routines. We get up in the morning, make a quick trip outside, then Zoey has her breakfast before joining me in the office. There, one at a time, I hide four small treats for her (she has to hunt for them folded up in her "snuggle towel"). Once Treat #4 has been found, she comes over for some petting and then just curls up nearby while I finish the morning's office work. Then we head for the door! With the nicer weather, we aim to make a two-mile walk in the neighborhood before lunch. We've just returned from that today and Zoey is dozing as you'll see in photo #2 with the red pillow in the back. It was taken a few weeks ago, but will give you a good idea and show how she scrunches her towels.

During the day she can be fine alone, reliably having the run of the house when necessary, but that is really rare. Usually at least one of us is here; Zoey can follow us around being good company with whatever we are doing, or sometimes she'd rather just doze, often scrunching up her towel or comforter to just her specifications -- also sometimes burrows under the comforter on the family room couch with just her nose sticking out. She enjoys riding and going on errands; we enjoy taking her with us if they are such that we do not ever have to leave her alone in the car. One fairly regular circuit is to drop off letters at the PO; to the local "Unleashed" store where she is greeted by name; to my Mom's house where she is known as "the vacuum cleaner" because Mother drops a lot of food (she is 104 years old) and Zoey loves hunting all over the floor for crumbs! As you know, she bring happiness wherever she goes, so it is a lot of fun to go with her.

Every late afternoon/evening, Zoey has dinner and a "date with Daddy" as she and Dave head off to walk on the woodland trails in the county park near our house. We have a fun little "welcome scene" when they get back: when Dave opens the car door, I call "Zo-eeeeee!" as she dashes for the front door. Great fun to see her bounding home, leash flying and tail wagging!

As we remember our drive to/from Martinsburg exactly one year ago today (on the 5th, so she would not have to begin life in her new home with the booming neighborhood fireworks), we keep all of you in our happy memories, thoughts, and prayers, with thanks again for rescuing Zoey until we could reach her, and for all you do to care for so many other animals in need.

Cheers / courage / blessings to all!

Marilyn and Dave Taylor