This photo was Penny's freedom ride home from the SPCA in 2013 (203.9)
This photo was Penny's freedom ride home from the SPCA in 2013. Today, Penny is free. Free of her discomfort and her pain and her cancer.
Penny was found loose in Syracuse on May 1st, 2013, by people from Ithaca. They brought her back with them and gave her to the SPCA of Tompkins County, or I would never have met her. (Embark occasionally notifies me of "close relatives" based on her DNA, and a lot of them are in or near Syracuse. Unfortunately, we never got to meet any of them. I'd still love to.)
When I met Penny on July 30th, 2013, she was one of two dogs that Sarah suggested I check out, a few weeks after the SPCA accidentally sent Icarus, the dog I'd been approved to adopt, home with someone else. She was so even-tempered that the SPCA had been using her to temperament-test new dogs, and she got along with just about everyone. But, after three months, she was showing some signs of shelter stress, and they really wanted to find her a home.
"Penny's interest in shredding things makes me a little leery of adopting her," I wrote that night, after watching her casually demolish a stuffed pumpkin.
Two weeks later, Dan suggested I try a "foster-to-adopt" with either Penny or Jake, the other dog I'd met. Penny and I bonded over the course of a couple of visits. She had a tendency to jump and bite at her leash when out on walks, and they told me a leash that was part chain would help prevent that.
It wasn't until much later that I realized she jumped and bit at her leash when she was excited -- when she was out walking with someone she loved! Penny wasn't misbehaving. She was excited to be with me! I last saw this as recently as a few months ago.
She came home on August 31st, 2013, obviously comfortable lying down on the back seat of the car, and then happily curling up on the second-hand dog bed I'd gotten from Megan. She even plopped herself down on my bed with a big smile, and I told her that was mine, but maybe I'd let her visit.
Over the first several days, we went to the Ellis Hollow Fair, to live music at Northstar, and on lots of walks. There wasn't much doubt that she was staying with me. Since then we've gone to concerts, restaurant patios, wineries, parks, lake houses, baseball games, camping, and just about everywhere you can imagine.
After a while, I invited her to join me on the bed first thing in the morning after sleeping on her own bed on the floor. Before long, she'd made herself at home on my bed. If I wasn't in it, she'd do a little burrowing to make the comforter more interesting. If I was, she'd nose at the edge until I'd lift it to let her crawl under. She was the only one totally comfortable under the covers all night. Carter sometimes forgets, but he needs his head sticking out or he starts panting after a while. Auggie just wanted to burrow.
That first fall, Penny came with me for a Thanksgiving trip to my parents' house. She won them over pretty quickly, and I love the photo of my mom walking her. When it was time for me to head to Manhattan for the Big Red hockey game, they changed their minds on the rule that she had to stay in her crate in my room when I was out. "She can stay out here with us. She'll be fine."
Penny welcomed a series of canine houseguests, and it was our friend Rex joining us for six months that made it clear she needed a full-time buddy. That's when the SPCA was getting creative about trying to find Carter a home. Carter, the dog-reactive dog who needed to be an only dog -- but who should go to an experienced dog owner. (There's the rub; experienced dog owners tend to already have dogs!)
I had already known Carter for a year and a half, but it wasn't until late 2014 that I urged the SPCA to let us try introducing Penny and Carter to see how it goes. "If it'll work with anyone, it's Penny," Emme said.
Penny and Carter first met face-to-face through a fence to see how they'd react, then they brought Carter inside the fenced-in area with a muzzle, just to be on the safe side. Penny darted around in circles, but kept coming back to Carter, who didn't seem to know what to do, to nudge him. "Come on!" she was saying. "Let's run around!" After she bounded back over to him a couple of times, he trotted around the SPCA play yard with her.
We did a couple more playdates to make sure they were getting to know each other and could be comfortable together, but Penny was the magical little girl who insisted it would all be fine. Carter came home on January 5th, 2015, and it's been an endless love story since then. They've cuddled next to each other, curled up with each other, laid on top of each other, licked each other.
Carter got to be with Penny at the end, thanks to a visit to the house from Dr. Jackson. He's wandered around the house a couple of times since, probably looking for her. He may be confused for a little while, but he'll be OK, and so will I. My thanks to Rachel and Tanya and Carol for being here with us.
I've joked that Penny had a sweet little girl disposition that could quickly be replaced by a grumpy old man attitude, and we saw a little of that this afternoon when Dr. Jackson tried to put a catheter in a vein in Penny's foot, even after she'd been sedated. As we'd warned him, she just doesn't like people messing with her feet! A little more sedative, and he was able to get the job done.
This is the promise we make to our animals when we bring them home. However painful it is, we have to help them across the Rainbow Bridge when they won't be getting better and they're no longer comfortable and happy.
We had a quiet day with lots of cuddles and a few short walks, and Martha came over and we all had cheeseburgers. I think I last made cheeseburgers for the dogs the day Auggie left us. Maybe I should do that more often.
I don't know if I believe in a life after death, but I do like to imagine that so many of Penny's buddies who've gone before her were waiting for her today, not to mention many of your pups. Gloria, Rex, and Auggie, we're counting on you.
Penny, I'm so glad I took a chance. Thank you for being my little girl.