Lola the rescue dog finds a home

ATLANTA - Working mom Jessica Brown likes having a full house of her own dogs and fosters. Her latest guest is a seven-year-old terrier mix named Lola.

"She's very, very sweet," says her foster mom Jessica Brown. "Very submissive."

After just three weeks, she's living like a queen, but life for Lola hasn't always been so cozy.

"I was riding the forklift to the back of the store here one day," says Mike Russo. "And I saw her laying on the curb back here, thinking maybe somebody had dumped their dog off."

Here is outside the garden center at the Lowe's in Sandy Springs. Assistant Mike Russo admits he has a soft spot for dogs, so he and some of the other employees started feeding her.

"We built her a little hut in the back," says Mike. "And I think she felt safe around here, she made this her little home base, and over time, she just became part ot the family over here."

Family...for almost four years, but there was a hitch.

"She would never let us pet her," says Mike. "We couldn't get more than ten or fifteen feet from her, but she hung around, you just could not catch her."

But then, one day, along came Joyce Hagan. She was shopping for pine bark when Lola caught her eye. Joyce just happens to be a dog trainer.

"I couldn't let this go," says Joyce. "Everyone said you can't get her, people have tried for almost four years, you cannot get her, and I said , "I can get her. If you understand how the dog works, how their mind works."

So she hatched a plan to catch Lola. Joyce put out a call for help on the website "Next Door", that's where she found Jessica and another neighbor who lent her a large kennel. And then she bought a device with a laser beam that would trigger the kennel door to close. She set the kennel up near the garden center where Lola was living. And then Joyce took over the feeding, everyday. She also set up a camera, and spent hours pouring over video, studying Lola's habits.

''And then I discovered her Achilles heel," says Joyce. "A cheeseburger."

Over two months, and many cheeseburgers later, Joyce and a fellow trainer succeeded in capturing Lola.

" I speak dog," says Joyce. "And you know what she said to me? She said, "What took you so long?...ha ha ha."

" I even put my hand up next to the cage," says Mike. "She gave me a little kiss, and that just kind of sent that off for me that she was going to be ok."

A vet check found her in amazingly good health. They also discovered she was chipped. Lola was originally owned by a rescue group. A woman had adopted her, but within days she ran away. Now, four years later the owner couldn't take her back. Luckily for Lola, she landed on Jessica's door step.

"The fact that she's doing so well, I can't imagine just putting her out to a stranger again, says Jessica. "So she's going to stay put."

And Jessica is adopting her.

"It's sad, but we're happy too," says Mike. "She's going to have a home now, she's going to be taken care of, better than we could, but we do miss her, miss the heck out of her."

Despite missing her Mike, Joyce and Jessica agree there couldn't have been a better ending.

"All she wants to do is be pet and loved on," says Jessica.

And there's no shortage of that in this forever home.