Full Speed Ahead!

Here we are in December.... Already. Another busy week is in our history book. 

As I mentioned in my last post, there has been a lot of focus on Iva lately. She remains available for adoption via the rescue. But  there hasn't been a lot of interest in her. One reason is probably her age. Another is that her needs are specific. But after all these years, I know that sometimes the home that doesn't look perfect from the outside, is perfect on the inside. 

~Iva in late October~

Keeping that in mind, I'd gotten a call from a couple living in "King George" Virginia, just over 2 hours from me. I liked them, and even though some things in their home visit report made them not a fit for Iva, I was willing to meet them. And I thought that Iva's best chance would be to take her to them, to see if they were a fit after all.  Okay, so you may be wondering, why they were not a fit on paper... It was that they have steps - Iva's broken shoulder before she came into the rescue means that she has limited range of motion and she has difficulty going up stairs, and can't control her speed coming down them. Thinking ahead, her size also makes going up and down stairs difficult if she were to reinjure her shoulder again. 

~Road trip for me and Iva~

So we were off on Sunday for a road-trip. I've never been to King George Virginia, and many people here in northern Virginia, have never heard of it. It is a quiet rural town east of Fredericksburg (Virginia) and let me tell you, it's way the heck out there. 

~Way the heck out there in King George VA

We found our way with only a few wrong turns. "King George Couple" were nice and welcoming. They are two people with big hearts and really do want to make a difference for senior dogs. And they are totally devoted to the 2 very senior Labs that they have. But as their home visit report said, they had very slippery laminate floors that Iva kept slipping on and the inside stairs were steep and Iva slid down them both times we had her do them. And then their 2 Labs were both not the fun and active companions that Iva really needs. There were a few other things that I won't mention because it'll seem a bit trivial and maybe I was being too critical and unfair... 

But I knew leaving their home, they were not a match for Iva. However, I decided to think about it for a few days, thinking that maybe the cosmos would tell me something different when the dust settled on a 4 hour road trip. Well, it didn't. The memory of her sliding down their steps and my having to practically catch her before she ran into the wall stayed fresh in my mind. So, I let them know. And onward the search goes for Iva and for King George couple too.