The Little Ash Girl Goes Home

In old fairy tales and folklore, Cinderella's original name is "Ash Girl" or "the little Ash Girl." Folklorists often refer to the archetypal Cinderella protagonist as "European Ash Girl." Even her Disney princess name, Cinderella, means "little cinder girl."

She lived in the ashes and cinders of the hearth, seeking warmth in a house that offered none. The Ash Girl was thin and dirty, forgotten by her father and mistreated by her stepmother. But she had a good heart, and in all of the stories -- sometimes with the help of magical birds, sometimes by the love and guidance of her departed mother's spirit, sometimes with the gifts of a benevolent fairy -- she found her way out of the ashes into a new life where she was safe and warm and beloved.

"Ashling" was not this little dog's original name. Her first owner called her something else. I don't know what it was, and I don't want to know, because knowing would taint whatever name it was.

When she came to the shelter, she was given the new name of Ashling, because the hope was that, like Cinderella the Ash Girl, she would find her way from a loveless home to a new, safe place where she could have her own Happily Ever After.

Today she did.

This morning Ashling went to her new home (and, as she did the first time, immediately ran straight to her people upon spotting them at the park). She'll be there, waiting, when her kids come home from school.

Hopefully it'll be the first of many, many such joyous greetings. Hopefully it'll be Happily Ever After.