Newtown resident and former Legislative Council member Joe Girgasky had been thinking about adopting a dog for some time.

Little did he suspect that the perfect pooch would be chauffeured to his doorstep all the way from New Orleans.

But a couple of weekends ago, Girgasky witnessed the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for an 8-year-old hound named Lacey, as a vehicle with Louisiana plates rolled up his driveway.

As Lacey bounded into his yard, Girgasky knew he had made the right decision to invite this mature southern pooch to share his cozy New England home.

“Lacey is just wonderful... just perfect,” Girgasky told The Newtown Bee just a few days after her arrival. “She loves people like you can’t imagine. This dog loves everybody. She weighs about 50 pounds, but my son picks her up and walks her around the house like she’s a puppy, and she is perfectly happy with it.”

While Lacey was born and raised in New Orleans, the story that ends in her forever home here started with a local acquaintance of Girgasky’s who fosters abandoned dogs.

“She would post videos about this dog and that dog — most of them being in local shelters around the area. So I said I wasn’t actively looking to adopt, but call me if one turns up that had the characwteristics I was looking for,” he said.

The ultimate find in a canine companion would be “a female with short hair — not an ankle biter, but I didn’t want a horse, either.”

Before long, Girgasky’s acquaintance from Sandy Hook texted him with news about a dog that appeared to fit the bill perfectly.

“This friend of my friend who was originally from Brewster [New York] and who had relocated to New Orleans just lost her future father-in-law, and his wife could not take care of their dog,” he continued.

So the woman in New Orleans took the dog in temporarily, as she already had a house full of other pets.

“She was looking for a place to call home for the dog, and she said via text that she was willing to take the dog anywhere to be sure the dog had a good home,” Girgasky said. “That sparked my curiosity, so I gave her a call and said, ‘You’re in New Orleans and I’m in Connecticut. Would you really be willing to bring the dog up here?’ And she said yes.”

He said Lacey’s temporary “mom” would never give the dog to a shelter in Louisiana because they tend to only keep them for a week or two before they are euthanized — there are very few ‘no-kill’ shelters down there.

Furthermore, she was worried if someone adopted the dog and it did not meet the owner’s expectations, the dog could also be done away with.

“Coincidentally, she had some friends in Brewster and if she was to come up she would have a place to visit, so I said ‘I’m in — I’ll take the dog,’” he said. “So last Saturday they pulled up the driveway, opened the door, the dog barked a couple of times and jumped out — friendly as can be.”

After separating from her foster mom, there were a few minutes of nervous whimpering, “but after a couple of hours, she settled in pretty quick.

“She got some good meals, and she came with all kinds of things to make her feel comfortable like her blanket, a crate, dog food Lacey was used to, all the things the dog was familiar with,” he said. “She took to the car very well, and she loves coming along with me shopping.”

Girgasky noted that Lacey is very calm, but could probably use a little training reinforcement.

“She’s great with kids, but I don’t think she knows how to behave off leash,” he said. “I’m working on that, and we’ll get her squared away. She doesn’t seem impressed with squirrels or birds, so I’m just waiting to see what she’ll do when she sees our deer.

“But in the end, we made the right move making that call to New Orleans,” Girgasky said, “she’s wagging her tail right now... she likes it here.”

Associate Editor John Voket can be reached at john@thebee.com.