Joanna Fortin.
Fifteen years ago, Stella Hanly worked as a software consultant for a global corporation. She was relatively new to the United States from her native Northern Ireland, where she grew up surrounded by animals. However, at that point in her life, Hanly just couldn’t see how the travel demands of her corporate job would allow her to properly care for a pet.
Everything changed when a friend – a veterinarian – made what was ultimately a life-changing request: would Hanly temporarily take in an abandoned puppy?
“It was one of my two weeks off traveling, and my friend had two dogs dumped at her clinic in rural southern Georgia – skinny puppies with mange and no hair,” Hanly recalled. “Of course I agreed to foster. We had no idea what breed he was – we thought maybe a chihuahua, he was so small. Once he started eating, though, he grew like a weed. We quickly saw he was definitely not a chihuahua. I named him Rupert, and fifteen years later, Rupert’s still