Zoie

About 2 weeks after we adopted Odie I got a call at work from Mr. Manx. He had to go in early and arrived at around 5Am. It was right around this time of year so it was very dark still. He told me this black dog with, what looked like, white eyes was hanging around his work and looked really freaky at 5 am. She was a very cool looking dog, but was very spooked. Anyway, being the dog lover I am, I went over there after work to check the dog out. She barked at us and acted sort of fearful and aggressive. I knew she was probably hungry and food might turn her mood around so I got some leftover lunch meat and started tossing it to her. I got to where she almost ate out of my hand but would bark at me right after she took the food so I was too scared to try anything else.
She was basically living in the back yard of the abandoned house next to his work. I'd go outside sometimes and sit by her and she would get close- but she'd stay in the fenced in part of the abandoned house (I guess she figured it was the closest thing to home she could find) with me on the other side.
A coworker of Mr. Manx would do the same thing on his lunch hour- just hang out with her between the fence. This went on for a few weeks until I get another call from Mr. Manx asking me to guess who was inside his work...I couldn't believe it. One day his coworker decided to grab a stick and threw it thinking she might play fetch. Well, that was the way into her heart. It wasn't 30 seconds after she retrieved that stick that she was a changed dog. He led her into work and she greeted everyone with wags and licks. Mr. Manx and I decided that we'd bring her home since it was a Friday and it had started sleeting outside that day. I could tell that she'd already wrapped her paws around our hearts.
I was really worried about how she would do with Odie. We finally let them go off leash and there was one short growl/bark from Zoie and they've been buds ever since...I guess they just had to work something out. Odie was still an 8 month old pup and it was obvious that Zoie had recently had puppies so maybe she took him in as her own.
We soon decided that we were going to be a 2 dog family.
(I'm waiting for the baby to kick Zoie one of these days. She loves to lay her head on my belly!)

Zoie has the most beautiful sky blue eyes that look striking against her black fur. She loves to retrieve and is obsessed with her "kong" We had to work out some food issues at first. She got a whole steak I took off the grill, a couple chicken breasts, a whole sandwich off the counter...I think that's all the big things. We soon established some basic rules regarding dog food and human food. I guess living on the streets will do that to a dog.
One really great thing about her is that she came obedience trained! She sits, stays, lays down, shakes and will pretty much do whatever you ask of her. She's the big cuddle dog I was missing.

I could carry on with many of the silly Zoie quirks but this is probably a long enough post about a dog! Maybe someday I'll list some of Zoie's peculiar habits...
Zoie loves people, especially my brother (who is in Iraq). Below are both Zoie and Odie saying their good byes the last night he was here. She's a pretty sensitive dog and I swear she knew he was leaving.