OLD COLORADO CITY, CO -- Moa, the charming, socially-engaging dog and house pet of web designer of Scotty Lord (pronounced "MO-ah"), was measured with an IQ of 42 this week.

Although there is not a known test that formally measures a dog's level of intelligence, Steve Garufi claimed his experience using the Weschler IQ test as a graduate student and his intuition told him the dog's IQ was 42. Exactly.

"Listen. I know it's 42. Every vibration in my body is telling me it's 42!" argued a heated, irritated, red-faced Steve, "I just know it is! It's 42!"

"I think that's actually pretty good for a dog, isn't it?" said Lord, Moa's caretaker and owner of Alpine Studio, a web development company in Colorado Springs that has 12 electoral votes in the upcoming August election for hair consultant.

Garufi's Relational Problems With Moa

With Lord out of town, Steve baby-sat* Moa with daily visits to the Old Colorado City home. Not known as a canine lover, Steve immediately ran into trouble with the dog.

"It was raining all day Saturday afternoon and she kept begging me to go outside. That's not very smart." Steve explained smugly.

Trouble soon began when Garufi exposed his lunch he brought with him. "She kept wanting to eat a part of my burrito." complained Garufi on Sunday afternoon, in an equally cantankerous mood, "It was really annoying."

Humbling to Steve, the next day Scotty showed that Moa indeed behaves, if properly directed, when humans eat food in the house. Politely asking her in a soft voice to leave the kitchen, Moa obediently walked out and stood outside the doorway. "Good girl, Moa." said Scotty.

Steve's relationship with Moa got off to a rocky start in October 1999, when their first meeting was a memorable encounter in Steve's tipi during a late night slumber party.

"All I remember was Moa walking around in the tipi maybe at 3 in the morning and me being really paranoid and pissed-off that she was going to step on my head."

"Yeah ... You really got in your stuff about that." replied Scotty, who vividly remembered the scene.

Garufi's tipi was originally built in the backyard of Lord, his 'buddy' in Horizons 16, a personal growth class of Rising Star Communications.

Scotty Lord, a Hero

Scotty adopted Moa when he found her wandering as a puppy on the outer edges of the desert in Moab, Utah. When local canine groups were unavailable to aid the sorrowful and despondent dog, Scotty, out of the goodness of his heart, brought Moa home with him on his drive back to Colorado Springs. Scotty named her Moa after the city's name, Moab.