A Very Good Dog

This one is hard to write. We always knew the day would come. Our sweet old dog Penelope made the return trip home from New Mexico with us OK but it was hard on her we could tell. She loved being back to her grass yard after having only a landscape rock yard there. We saw her make doggie “grass angels” lying on her back and wriggling about to scratch similar to when the grand kids lie on their backs in the snow and move their arms and legs to make an angel. She loped along the fence line doing her surveillance several times too. She was also exhausted and laid for hours on her bed and struggled to rise. It was a beautiful day for March in the mid seventies. After having her dinner she had a coughing spell (more and more common) and I let her out and she went out into the grass and collapsed. She lay there for awhile and finally got up. We decided to take her in to the vet and knew that it was probably time. It was and we stayed with her to the end stroking her soft head and ears.

What makes a dog a “good” dog. It wasn't her pedigree, she came from a mixed lab breed litter. She had a golden lab mother and a Chesapeake brown lab father so far as they were able to determine. There were gold pups, browns and solid blacks and Penelope with her black with brown undertones and white on chest and paws. The litter was hand raised by a family we knew and Emily saw them at three days old. We wanted a female and we picked her. We are fairly certain that she out-lived all her litter mates at 14 years and 5 months.

It wasn't her perfect obedience that made her a “good” dog either. She learned all her commands at obedience class but she never learned to walk/heel nicely on a leash. She was just too distracted by all the great smells and would either pull like a sled dog or dart from one side of the side walk to the other almost tripping you.

She wasn't dainty, she drank like a horse and dribbled water far and wide. In her puppy years she chewed up some good stuff, a bean bag chair and a wood handle on a roll top desk. She tore up the grass in the back yard with her tennis ball chasing. We always had to put fencing around and through the gardens to keep her from trampling everything.

I guess it was her doggie disposition that made her such a good dog. She really just wanted to please us most of all. She loved being with her people and doing stuff with us. The kids took her along jogging. Once she jumped out of the car window going after geese at the park. She was compliant in keeping off the furniture and did not try to dart out the door or gate. She loved going on our hikes and she is in most of my posts about hiking. She would suddenly swerve off trail if there was a stream or lake nearby. She was a master at catching food in her mouth. She LOVED popcorn.

She was our empty nest dog to keep us company after the kids all became adults and left. She was a gentle dog with the grand babies and NEVER showed any aggression even when they followed her around hanging on her tail or poked fingers in her mouth to feel her teeth. She let one year old Will lie on her bed with his head on her side. If she got nervous she would just get up and walk away from them. Up until a year or so ago she had to jump to get her evening milk bones. The toddlers thought that it was so funny to see her jump straight up in the air multiple times. She wore costumes at Halloween and enjoyed greeting all the kids who came to the door.

She was fun and sweet. There will never be another one like her. Farewell old friend you were a very good dog. The photos are all from Steve's archives spanning many years and are in no chronological order.