Iggy And The Stooges

OCTOBER 25--For those of you closely following the saga of Iggy, the dog Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi adopted (and then gave away without notifying the animal rescue group that had entrusted the animal to them), here's an e-mail chain tracking the terrier tale.

Though there has been a concerted media effort to demonize Marina Baktis, who runs the Mutts and Moms organization, the correspondence shows that Baktis's recovery of the dog from Cheryl Marks, DeGeneres's hairstylist, appeared warranted and not a rash action.

As seen in these e-mails, de Rossi gushed about the dog in a September 11 e-mail to Baktis, calling Iggy 'highly trainable, smart and enthusiastic.'

On October 12, Baktis wrote to DeGeneres and de Rossi seeking an update on the animal's progress, since she had not heard from the couple in a while. The following day, DeGeneres and de Rossi responded, 'Funny you should write today--we were just about to write to you.' The performers then explained that, 'we tried Iggy,' but that the puppy 'was too much energy and time for us in our brand new home with so much going on in our lives.' As a result, the couple reported, they gave Iggy to Marks, who had been persistent in 'asking-begging-for him.'

Baktis responded that she was 'deeply disturbed' by the pair's decision to give Iggy away 'in violation of our legally binding' adoption contract. While de Rossi claimed that Baktis's demand to have Iggy returned to Mutts and Moms was 'heartbreaking to many people,' Baktis was firm in her position that the celebrities were clearly in the wrong.

In an October 14 e-mail to Marks, Baktis wrote that de Rossi signed a contract promising that Iggy would be 'returned to rescue' if she could not keep the dog. de Rossi, Baktis wrote, 'violated the contract she signed and broke our trust.' (4 pages)