A black Labrador retriever that spent two stints at a Kansas animal shelter is living the good life on a 120-acre Florida farm, thanks to an affluent heir who felt a personal connection to the dog and dispatched a private jet to claim her.
Last week, social media pounced on the story of the senior dog that returned to the Chautauqua County Animal Shelter in Sedan, Kansas, after wandering some 30 miles away from a previous home.
Courtesy of On the Wings of Ange
Helen Rich, an heir to the Wrigley fortune, pals around with her new friend, Lady, at her home in Florida.
When author Helen Rich — a granddaughter of chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. — learned of the dog’s story, she sent her personal assistants to pick up the pooch Thursday and fly him to Florida.
Rich told TODAY.com that she could relate to the dog’s story.
“I’ve had a tough life; just because I have a family name, it doesn’t mean diddly,” she said, citing a rough childhood, decades of having to prove her worth before inheriting the family fortune, and two battles with breast cancer. “I’ve had to survive and endure and walk a long, long way like her. She endured. I endured. Her story resonated with me.”
It’s been a long journey for Lady, whose previous owners called her Ma Kettle and Pepper.
Two years ago, Lady’s original owner passed away. When no one claimed ownership of the dog, shelter director Kelsey Loyd found a place for her in his kennel.
Loyd told TODAY.com that a local family adopted her for about a year and a half, but when Lady started clashing with smaller dogs, the family gave her to a friend in Independence, Kansas. A few weeks ago, Lady escaped that house and walked almost 30 miles toward Sedan, but she returned to the shelter because neither household reclaimed her, Loyd said.
via First class! Heiress gives abandoned shelter dog a jet-set rescue – Pets – TODAY.com.
