Penny

I used to go on these long walks (https://bigstevechannel.com/?p=68).  I still do, but it’s been hot.  Originally, I did it for health, but there were other unexpected benefits.  One of those benefits was realized early in January 2022, but it really began a couple of weeks earlier. 

I was walking past the old Woodland Trails West neighborhood on the White Oak Bayou hike/bike trail and a pack of dogs set upon me.  Of course, this was terrifying…my heart thumped in my chest and the hair rose on my arms and neck.  But I had my walking stick which doubled as a dog deterrent.  And as a deterrent, it absolutely worked.  Those dogs saw me raise my weapon and decided it was much safer to let me walk by instead of attacking.  So, I hurried on my way as they barked at me.  Then, checking my six, I noticed one of them was following me, a tall, skinny, brindle-patterned dog.  She wasn’t aggressive…quite the opposite…her tail was wagging.  She had sagging teats full of milk.  She just followed me.

I didn’t walk much further, maybe another half mile or less.  I stopped, introduced myself to her, held my hand out (closed and palm up as I’d been taught), and made a friend.  She was sweet, and she was tenacious.  She jumped up to put her dirty forepaws on my chest.  I quickly got her down and started for home.  She followed the whole way.

She had no tags, no collar, but she obviously had puppies somewhere.  I decided to walk her back to the area where I’d found her (or where she found me).  By the time we got there, she was tired and laid down in front of a neighbor’s house.  I figured that’s where she lived and where her puppies were.  I left her lying there in front of that house.

She was there when I walked by the next day.  And again, she followed me home.  And again, I walked her back to the house where I’d left her the day before.  This time though, she wouldn’t lay down and stay. She tried to follow me when I tried to leave.  I even tried to run, but she easily followed me the feeble distance I put between us.  So, I went back and knocked on the neighbor’s door.  The girl who answered said it wasn’t their dog and she didn’t know who’s dog it was.  She had puppies somewhere; I couldn’t let her follow me home.  So, I called my wife Michelle and asked her to come pick me up, which she did.

I posted pictures of her on Nextdoor to try and find her owner (and her puppies), but no luck.

I didn’t see her for a couple of days.  There was a storm and freeze forecasted and I was worried about her.  My wife and I went searching for her New Year’s Day.  We talked to a neighbor who said he’d been feeding her but said he’d never seen any puppies and was sure she’d been dumped there.  We left a phone number with him and asked him to call if he saw her.  We canvassed the neighborhood and the disc golf course nearby but saw no sign of her.

We’d lost our awesome Aussie, Gizmo, the February before to bone cancer.  Saying goodbye to him was hard.  He was a good boy and a great friend. We missed him terribly.  Now we had a chance to fill the hole he’d left in our lives.  So, we posted on Nextdoor and asked anyone seeing her to contact us.

There was a hard rain one night that week.  The streets flooded, and Michelle’s Camry took water in the floorboard.  I was busy trying to vacuum the water out when I got a call from a neighbor.  She’d seen the dog we were looking for in the back of our neighborhood.  So, we drove back there and sure enough found her trotting down the street.  We got her in the truck and took her home. Turns out, one of our neighbors had kept her in his garage overnight, saving her from the storm. 

We took her to our vet that week.  She was emaciated but otherwise in good condition.  The following month, we got her spayed.  We named her Pepper at first but then changed to Penny.  Our vet had her listed as Pepper-Penny.

I took her on walks with me.  I let her off leash a few times on these walks knowing she wouldn’t leave me.  But she did leave me to chase a couple ducks down the bayou.  I had a brief thought that I’d never see her again, but I caught up with her. The ducks had gotten away and she was sniffing around for other game.  I kept walking her off leash until one day she found a pile of stinky garbage and enjoyed herself by rolling around in it.  I was furious with her.  Even more so when she tried to refuse a bath.  After that, she wore the leash on walks.

Penny once dug a large hole under our gate and decided to take herself for a walk.  Michelle came home from work to find her in front of the house.  I was fairly upset about that too, but I filled in the hole with a cinder block near the surface so she couldn’t do it again.

She was a counter surfer.  She got hold of a couple slices of beef roast once.  I was pissed.  We learned to keep food out of her reach, and she eventually stopped surfing. 

Penny got along with the cats even when she got too close to Max and he bit her.  She didn’t seem to mind.  She snapped at my mom’s dog Jackson once.  He must’ve crossed a line.  But they were best friends ever after.  I guess one of them learned a lesson.  Jackson loved to wrestle with her although she was much taller and had fifteen pounds on him.  He also tried to hump her, but he was neutered; she didn’t seem to mind that either.

She loved attention.  If she noticed us petting Jackson or one of the cats, she’d find a way to get involved.  She earned the nickname “Ms. Jealous.”

Penny was a keep-away champ.  She’d bring you a toy or a chewie, but then she would turn away at the last second if you tried to take it.  It was quite frustrating, especially for Jackson.

Penny liked to bark at anyone entering the house or just walking by while she was outside.  It wasn’t exactly a bark though and not exactly a howl.  It was more of a WOOOO-WOOO-WOOO sound.  And it was very loud.  Michelle could here it from the street as she got out of her car.

She was headstrong.  Even stubborn.  When she didn’t get what she wanted, she’d growl softly and then WOOOO-WOOO-WOOO at you.  We’re sure that was her way of cussing you up and down for not doing what she wanted.

She could run like the wind blows.  She was like a galloping pony when Jackson chased her in the yard or when she was chasing squirrels.  And every now and then she’d leap into the air like a gazelle.  Truly she was a sight to behold when she raced around the flowerbed, then around the shed, then back around the flowerbed again.  Jackson took shortcuts because he had no chance of keeping up with her.

Last week, she wasn’t herself.  She was lethargic.  She held her head low.  She wouldn’t run and only went in the yard to potty.  We made an appointment with the vet.  They did bloodwork and took x-rays.  She was very low on albumin, the protein which helps to keep fluid in your veins, so her abdomen filled with fluid.  And she had labored respiration; something was filling her lungs.  The vet felt she needed attention from a specialist and recommended an animal hospital but said it would be expensive.  And it was.  Two days of supportive care and lab work plus the original vet bill was almost eight thousand. 

Still, it would have been worth it if she’d improved.  They found nodules on her liver which they suspected to be malignant and the cause of her lowered albumin.  They took a sample for cytology which would take one to two days for results. The pneumonia made it very difficult for her to breathe and her belly was full of fluid. Whether it was cancer or something else, she was in a bad way. We couldn’t let her keep suffering as she was.  The doctor agreed euthanasia was a viable option for her.  We took her bed, blanket, and a couple of toys to her, so she’d at least have some comforts from home.  We got on the floor with her and petted her and talked to her as the doctor put her to sleep.

My God, it’s like someone is ripping a piece of me out of my chest.  We cried a lot.  I still cry writing these words… knowing I’ll never see her funny face again (with one ear sticking up and one flopping down), knowing I’ll never hear her WOOOO-WOOO-WOOO again, knowing I’ll never see her leap like a gazelle again…I feel like this wound will never heal.  Although I know it will one day. 

She was a good girl and a great friend.  We loved her and miss her terribly.

-Big Steve