Elphaba is now a 75 pound lab, but her life was almost over before it began.
In July of 2004, 84 labs were removed from the premises of a dog breeder in Larimer County, Colorado. Fifty of thos dogs were so ill that they didn't make it.
Elphaba was one of the survivors.
She and her two siblings along with their mother had been in a small travel size carrier for at least 4 days without food or water.
There were hundreds of people in the state that signed up to adopt these dogs. We had to attend a meeting and fill in a long questionaire about why we wanted one of these dogs (we had lost our first rescued lab earlier that year), how we would deal with whatever issues they might have, who would care for her when we couldn't.
We were really delighted when we "won the lottery" and got to bring her home. We had the distinction of being the family that lived farthest away from Larimer County to adopt one of the 30 survivors.
She's a great dog, friendly and happy -- we're glad we were able to be her rescuers.
As for her name, Elphaba is the Wicked Witch of the West from the musical "Wicked" -- but our daughter's name is Dorothy, and the first lab we had was Toto --- it just seemed to fit!
Colorado Springs, CO
