Icy

A Place to Call Home

We got Icy from the Humane Society in February of 2005…actually, we were the ones who took her to the humane society after she showed up on our doorstep just before Christmas of 2004.

It was the night before a big snow, and she showed up in the neighborhood as a stray – skinny and shivering. She played with my kids all day, and then hunkered down on the neighbor’s porch for a very cold night. My daughters and I went out to take her a blanket. We came back into the house so glum-faced and sad that my husband – who swore we would never get a “house dog” – said “Bring the dog inside.” I told him, I never loved him as much as I did in that moment, because he did NOT want that dog in the house – he only did it to please his wife and two young daughters.

So, Icy – the kids named her that because she showed up before a snowstorm – spent that night curled up on our couch, and spent the next few days playing with my kids in the snow and sleeping in front of the fireplace while I frantically tried to find someone to take her in. We were scheduled to leave for the holidays, and nobody was in the market for a dog. Finally, I loaded her in the car and took her to the humane society, and they agreed to take her.

As you can probably guess, the story doesn’t end there. I had fallen in love with this dog and just could not get her out of my mind. I kept tabs on her by e-mailing the humane society, and my husband and I talked and talked about whether we should be getting a dog, etc. Finally, we decided we were ready to keep her. So just before Valentines day, after putting in a fence and getting all ready, we went back to the humane society and took Icy home for good.

She is such a great dog. She’s very friendly and sweet – although she LOVES to bark at everything. She has the run of our very large yard and spends her days chasing squirrels and birds. She can jump really high – when she wants to come inside, she launches herself at the kitchen door to get our attention. She loves curling up on a pile of blankets in front of the fireplace and napping. She also loves to eat the boxes that the delivery men leave on the porch – the picture of her attached is one in which she’s chewing up a remnant of a box – so we’ve had to stop deliveries to our house – we get them sent to the neighbor instead for safekeeping. Otherwise, we come home to find her dragging that new sweater from LL bean all over the yard, and I had one lovely peach linen dress delivered that ended up with holes all through it and covered in grass stains.

Oh, well, it’s a small price to pay. She really is part of our family – even my husband – the no-dog-in-the-house guy – is crazy about her. He takes her for walks and sneaks her treats and just generally spoils her.

When people ask us where we found her, we say she found us – we think it was meant to be. And we’re thankful to the humane society for keeping her safe and healthy until we could take her permanently.

The Dunn Family