Penny's History...

Penny was born on the mean streets of Vancouver on December 1, 1994. As a puppy, she had to struggle to survive during the cold and often scary winter nights while she was on the streets. Little is known about her past, however, she was brought in as a stray to the Vancouver SPCA in February of 1995 with another puppy which may have been her brother.

In late February of 1995, we were searching for a special puppy to bring into our lives. On one of our visits to the SPCA, we noticed a number of puppies had been brought in. But the one that caught our eyes was a small little tan Shepherd-X puppy. After considerable thought about our ability to take care of a new puppy, we rushed back to the SPCA the same day to adopt her.

All did not go smoothly however... Even though we were ready to adopt this precious little bundle of joy on the spot, the SPCA would not allow her to be adopted for another week. And so the long, anxious waiting period began. Not knowing whether the puppy would be adopted by someone else, her future daddy rushed to the SPCA on March 1, 1995 (the first day she could be adopted) during his lunch break to bring this puppy to it's future home. When I went to her cage, she immediately got up from her makeshift bed and sat down in front of me, licking my finger through the metal grille.

What would follow in the next few days would be best described as the best stressful days of our lives. When I brought Penny home during my lunch break, I blocked her in the kitchen using a small wooden gate propped up against the wall, thinking that this should be strong enough to hold in a 3 month old puppy... I was wrong! When her mommy came home from work (carrying a newly bought bag of Puppy Chow for our puppy), she opened the door to find a beautiful puppy had broken past the kitchen gate and was standing before her. That was not all that she found, as Penny had also left a "present" in the family room. Being the wonderful mommy that she is, she quickly went about cleaning up the mess that had been made and gave our new found puppy a bath. The first real question of doubt that we faced as new puppy parents, however, happened the following morning when we awoke to find Penny (then still unnamed and being called "Puppy") had escaped from the kitchen again and had left several messes in the house and chewed through the telephone cords!

Although there were a number of other trying days: when she ripped up the carpet in the kitchen (a number of times), chewed the kitchen cabinets, and nearly choked on the kitchen drapes, Penny has filled our lives with the most wonderful joy and it is difficult imagining what our lives would be without her.