Joy came into our lives right after Christmas last year. I had been volunteering at the shelter a lot and had been debating fostering a dog. My work closed over Christmas so I had a whole week off and thought that would be a perfect opportunity to try fostering. I went to the shelter one afternoon and walked some dogs and then asked if they had any dogs that needed fostered. They told me about a couple- one was some beagle mix that would not stop barking and I can't remember what the story was with the others but they just didn't feel right. I walked into the clinic area (where the hurt/sick or "problem" animals are) and saw this little puppy by herself in her kennel looking really sad and pathetic. They told me her name was Joy, she was about 8 weeks old and that she was from a humane investigation (really, really bad story). She was the only pup out of the litter that was ok, her brother was in a foster home and was blind from a head injury.

They told me she was a pit bull mix and said I could go ahead and take her if I wanted. So I did. Mr. Manx came home to a bit of a surprise but he knew I'd been kicking around the idea for a while- one look at her and he was all gooey.

We had a rough night with her. I didn't know whether I should expose my dogs to her so kept them pretty much locked up and she stayed in the kennel a lot. It was a long first night. I ended up sleeping on the couch and had my fingers inside the kennel since she just cried all night. She was really hot and I was worried she was running a fever so took her in the next morning. She was and they put her on some antibiotics and we went back home. She drank water like she had never tasted it before- even to this day she laps it up like it won't be there tomorrow.

I was determined to socialize her since she was a pit-bull mix from a bad, bad situation. She was extremely shy and timid- very fearful of everything at first. She quickly warmed up to our dogs though. I had to force her to let me hold her and snuggle with her.

We had some APL friends over for foster puppy "play dates" while we had her and I soon started taking to her adoptions. Man, there are some strange people that come to those adoptions. One woman started yelling at me across the store asking about her. I was just ignoring her (I do not respond to people who feel the need to yell across stores) until she came up and started asking me about Joy. When I told her she was a pit-bull mix she started freaking out saying she is mean. I looked at her like she was crazy and said this is a puppy- I don't think she's capable of being mean- in fact she's one of the sweetest, most timid puppies I've met? I suggested that maybe this was not the breed for her and that she continue to look for one that she is comfortable with and she continued to argue with me about pit bulls (argue with herself, more like because I was just trying to nod my head and do my best to not engage her- it was all I could do to remain polite). So she has to call her son who would "love" this puppy and insists that I wait for him to arrive. He arrives right before the adoption ended and seems to have no interest in the dog.

There were some very nice people that looked at Joy but no - one really interested except the whackos (I won't bother sharing the other stories!) that were either scared of her or wanted a "tough dog." The cool part was that Joy got to play with her brother at the adoptions( Stevie- like Stevie wonder) they were so similar in disposition! Stevie got adopted pretty quickly even though he was blind- we were so thrilled.
At one of the first adoptions a nice volunteer snapped Joy's picture for petfinder.com so we could start really advertising.
Now, Joy as a puppy and even to this day has always had teary eyes. In her petfinder picture, her eyes were all glossy and teary and she looked so cute! They asked me to write something up to add to her picture and I would write these extremely loving descriptions of her. I began to discover that I was writing this little petfinder description for myself because I realize I was starting to get attached. Joy started acting like a "normal" puppy, actually extremely well behaved, and really was fitting into the house nicely. Plus, Mr. Manx was undeniably in love with little "squirty"
"Squirty" was her nickname since we weren't overly fond of Joy- but hadn't found an alternative.
Well, we soon decided to just keep her because neither of us could part with her and every time I saw her picture on petfinder I cried.

Through this, I had to be tested for ovarian cancer from a large cyst the doctor found- it was months of being scared and my little puppy took my mind off my worry. Along with this, my brother went away to basic training, my Mom had major spinal surgery and was in extreme pain up until her surgery. I felt like all I did was worry and she was welcome relief.
As time progressed my brother decided that this was what he was meant to do, my Mom's surgery was a success and my cyst miraculously went away and 2 weeks after the appointment confirming my good health, I found out I was pregnant. There seemed to be Joy in our lives so we kept the name. We did alter it slightly to reflect a song by an artist that we like…Joi was another spelling of her name and it just seemed to fit when we discovered that song title- don't know why.
It now turns out that Joy is biggest of all our dogs, is a digger, and a total instigator of mischief around the house. She's also sweet as can be to all people, dogs, and cats. She is still coming out of her shell to this day and finally enjoys snuggling with me on the bed before I go to bed- she's still fine staying in her kennel which makes managing three dogs easier.
It may sound like I have a fondness for one dog over the other since I realized each post is getting longer and longer but I've discovered that with each dog, there is just more of a story to fill in. I know we never would have kept her had we known I would be pregnant so soon after but it's a done deal now. We just have a big house that is filled with lots of love and lots of fur.
I do know I'm done with fostering though!!!