Me, Iva and the Cosmos

Weekends have been busy for us. A recent Saturday was spent taking Iva to meet a perspective family that had applied specifically to adopt her. The rescue that I foster for requires home visits, and their home visit didn't exactly paint a glowing picture of them for several reasons. With that, and their living more than a 2 hours drive from us, it left me reluctant to even consider them. But I decided to give them a chance. 

With my brother in tow, we met halfway in the town of Culpeper Virginia. 

Family of Four, was a retired Dad who is home most of the time, Mom was still working, and they have a 10 year old and college age daughters - And a Golden Retriever named Pockets that like Iva, was about 8 years old. We had several things in common and being a big believer in cosmic forces, I thought maybe the cosmos was bringing us together. I found myself liking them for those reasons and as we chatted, in my mind I was putting together just how this could maybe work. 

The visit wasn't exactly perfect. Working Mom was a little critical of a few things about Iva - which made me a little critical of them - And when Working Mom kept examining Iva's coat, specifically around her tail and neck - I knew what she was looking for, and I blurted out that "Iva doesn't have fleas." Working Mom seemed a bit embarrassed, and stopped what she was doing. 

~Iva~

Despite that and a few other things, as you can probably tell, I wasn't sure about them. But I was really trying to hang onto what the cosmos must have been trying to tell me; that they were the family for Iva -- It helped that Iva seemed to like School Age Girl, and I thought that she seemed okay with Retired Dad and their dog Pockets. Family of Four pushed me on making my decision right then, but I promised them I'd get back to them in a few days - School Age Girl told me that after our visit they were going to go buy toys for Iva. 

~The Wind in Iva's Face, on our way home ~

On our way home, I tormented my brother with all my thoughts and I just hoped that I'd have some clarity on the whole thing. And sure enough, it came from Retired Dad in a text message BEFORE we even got home. It said:

Hello Kim,  Iva is a real sweetheart.  We enjoyed meeting her.

But we think she may not fit into our family.  We are concerned about her age and longevity.  We couldn't handle losing a family member like her for a long time. 

Thank you for introducing her to us, I'm sorry it didn't work out.

Chris

What??!! Well, okay, whatever, and thank-you cosmos for giving me the answer I needed. But can I add what a ridiculous reason this was? Only because Iva's age is of course mentioned in her write up, so it was and is no secret that she's 8 years old. And anyone who makes an issue about not wanting to adopt a dog because of their age, never scores any 'points' with me. 

But it doesn't end there. I missed a call from Working Mom whose voicemail said that they'd changed their minds, and were again interested in adopting Iva. If age was an issue, Iva was then 3 days older, so what changed? I'll never know, because I didn't call them back. And I'm not going to. A friend said that things in the cosmos can sometimes backfire. I think that's what it did this time. But I'm still a believer in those cosmic forces. And what could be a better reminder of that than this weeks last super blue moon until 2037. 

~The Super Blue Moon over our house~