After a month or so with Stormy, the rescue group called my Dad's animal hospital, which is where Dawn was working at at the time. Someone had called to say they found a Doberman puppy and had tried for a month to find her owners to no avail. They were told by their landlord they had to get rid of her that night. Could they drop her off to get her spayed, then Dogworks would take over from there.
Not long after she showed up, I got a call from Dawn. When she told me about this puppy, I could see the writing on the wall. She had already fallen in love with her and was determined to keep her. All day in the kennels she had been quiet, but when Dawn took her back the next morning she kicked up such a fuss! We figured she was VERY upset at being taken away from her home like that, and was letting us know she had found her home!
She was relentlessly happy! All you had to do was look at her and she'd wag her stubby little tail! She got the wagging so quickly that her behind couldn't help but join in and we said she was doing the Tahitian Fast Dance. She'd also use her wagging tail to try to distract us if she was up to no good. For some reason, she had no control over her tongue when we ate in the front room, and would start tasting the air as her head moved unerringly to our plate of food. When we'd admonish her, the tail would start to wag as if to say, "See how cute I am?" It was really hard to stay mad at her, or any of them, for long.
Although her ears were cropped, one refused to stand up, and we figured it was her subtle way of reminding us which way we'd "go" after death depending on how well we treated her.
She was also fearless and bold. Nothing could get in her way. She'd keep whacking at whatever was blocking her way until it finally moved and she could get by. She, too, was a very good dog, but got weak around anything smelling tasty, and garbage cans or counter tops didn't stop her from trying to get to the yummy tidbits she knew were there. We eventually installed a gate that attached to the walls, that took some tough treatment but held it's ground for the most part, with a few repairs.
For some reason, we had a hard time coming up with her name and called her the "Little Red One" from May to November. One day she had evidently found some pills that made her very wobbly, like drunk. That scared and saddened us to think that if something had happened she hadn't had a proper name. At almost the same time we thought of the name Penny. A Pretty Penny, because she was worth so much more than one cent to our hearts.
She's the one who started the sleeping under the covers. I always thought I was in a little bit of heaven surrounded by my 'babies'. Penny liked to dive under head first and lay the length of my legs, and her warm breath would warm my feet. (Perhaps she did that out of self defense? Keep the feet off her belly?)
That was especially great during the winter. I like to sleep in a cold room, but be warm under the covers. It didn't take nearly as warm to warm up with two or three large dogs sharing a queen sized bed.
ALL of our girls love our Dad. Once he showed up, you'd think we no longer existed! (I have to admit though, Doc was another story. . .) :roll:
If we said Dad, we'd have to be prepared to have him show up within a 15 minute's grace period or else we'd be read the riot act!
Another thing, all our girls but Mahana have learned to accept that warm bellies attract cold hands and feet. When I did that to Mahana for the first and last time, she practically levitated off the bed!
I know there's tons more to tell you about each one, and I'm sure I'll be figuratively kicking myself later for forgetting to tell you about one thing or another, but I'll sign off for now with a few more pictures.
So now it's your turn! If all you want to do is post a picture, fine. Whatever I can get. . . I so love animals!