Happy Birthday, Penelope!!!

Today is Penelope's 9th birthday! Since this is my first year of blogging, it is time for me to share my Penelope story - all the things you MUST know about my one true love.

When I was in college, I often spoke of how I was going to get a boy beagle someday and that I would name him Skippy. Why a beagle? Well, while I was growing up, my family only had one pet and that was a beagle named Rufus. I suppose since he was my only first-hand experience to draw from, it seemed only natural to choose the same breed.

Flash forward to the beginning of 2001. I started getting the puppy itch something fierce. I had been living in my house for 6 months, so I felt I could offer up all the necessities - a backyard and a stable, loving home. I planned a trip to Ireland in March of '01 and it only made sense to wait until my return to pursue my puppy hunting.

On March 21st, while at work (shhhh...don't tell the powers that be), I did an on-line search and found a breeder up in the boonies of The Woodlands that had 3 out of a litter of 4 beagles available. There were 2 girls and only 1 boy left. Decision made...I would get my boy and name him Skippy...or would I?! All the sudden I started second guessing my decision...I mean there really wasn't a choice since there was only one male. What if I didn't like the boy? I understand that common sense would say to go home empty handed and find another breeder, but it is entirely impossible to go puppy hunting and not buy a puppy - I'm 100% convinced of this! So, I put my mom on notice that there was a slight possibility that I may get a girl and that she better start coming up with some girl names. She was so on it! She came up with a whole bunch, but there was something about Penelope (which she chose because Beagles are English dogs) that I just adored. By the way, I think it appropriate to mention that I am a huge advocate of naming dogs people names that you would NEVER name a person because it's funny. Oh and if you are reading my blog and your name is Penelope, I am very sorry for offending you. =/

Okay, so after work that evening, I traipsed up to The Woodlands with my mom and my friend, Laura. It turned out that we were in Podunkville. The breeders had the male separated from the females in his own little cage. My mom thought he looked lethargic and that I should take a look at the girls. The girls were in some kind of a large dog house and they were sitting in the doorway staring at me. I said, "come over here" in my sweetest voice and Penelope trotted over to me right away. I knew she was the one! Everyone told me to take a look at the mom and dad before I made my decision to purchase a pup, so I asked to see the mom. She looked nice and so I asked her name. In his best Texas accent, Bubba said, "Itsy." Oh...what a lovely name, I thought. BUT...I was only kidding, of course. Next I asked to see the father. Ol' Bubba took me to another fenced in area and showed me a much shorter-than-mom beagle. Of course, I asked what his name was and it shouldn't have surprised me to hear it was "Pretty Boy." Well then...it's a wonder Penelope didn't cry one iota when we scampered away from there - I saved her from being called Itsy Jr. or Pretty Girl. Phew!

A couple of weeks in our getting to know each other phase, I quickly discovered that lethargic might not have been so bad. Penelope was a handful - sure she was uber cute and super playful, but she could also be a little beast. She was on her own time schedule...she was incredibly stubborn (it's a breed thing) and WAY too smart for her own good. I had decided that piggies were her theme toys. She had piggy everything. One day she was up on the sofa with me, but she was being a little brat, so I put her on the floor. She wasn't big enough to jump on the couch all by herself, so it wasn't an issue. I told her to go get her piggy which was in my bedroom. She ran into the bedroom, got her piggy, brought it to my feet, then used the piggy as a "footstool" to jump from the ground onto the couch. Yep...that's when I knew I was in trouble!

When I hosted dinner parties or other such festivities, Penelope would try to drink my friends' alcoholic beverages. While going on walks, Penelope would try to pick up cigarette butts. Sometimes Penelope would refuse to eat her meals, no matter what I tried - adding gravy to her food, for example. My friends and I would often joke that she had a supermodel mentality.

Penelope and I have been through a lot in the almost 9 years we've been together. She's been my sounding board when I've been annoyed with the world. She's been a "shoulder to cry on" when I've been at my lowest of lows. She's danced with me when I've been a happy little lark. She even accepted a new addition to our family when almost 2 years ago I brought a hood rat (Delilah) into our home. Throughout all of this, she has been a little trooper!

Our biggest obstacles began this past May when she went from having shoulder aches and pains (which were misdiagnosed as arthritis initially by my FORMER vet but were later correctly identified as tendonitis by my CURRENT vet) to discovering in September that she had glaucoma in her left eye. It was so very fast acting and apparently the pain was excrutiating to her...so bad, in fact, that the animal eye care specialists told me it's like your worst migraine headache magnified 10x with zero reprieve. She went from retaining a little bit of eyesight in that eye to none in just a week. It was heartbreaking to me especially since there was nothing that could be done to save the eye. I was left with two options - one was to remove the eye all together and they would just sew the eye shut (a pirate, if you will) and the other was to remove the internal components of the eye, replacing them with a prosthesis, leaving the eye ball for cosmetic purposes (even though it was non-functional). I chose option #2 since I thought it best that Penelope look as normal as possible (my family now calls her Zombie Eye (nice). Then there was a horrible battle about getting eye drops in her, as she is on lifetime eye drops in her right eye to try to prevent or at least slow down glaucoma from ruining that eye, as well.

By some miracle, Penelope now rolls over onto her side and lets me put the eye drops in her twice a day (I'm sure the treats she gets as a reward for doing so help). She is happier and healthier than she has been in a very long time. She plays hard, keeping up with a much younger Delilah. Some nights she even comes to curl up in my lap while I'm playing games on my laptop. She's also a little snuggle bunny when we go to bed. As you may have read, I've recently taken up running. I was sure Delilah would be my running mate, but nope...turns out it's Penelope. She's always ready to "go dog, go" with her giant ears (my favorite part) flapping behind her. She has more energy now than ever! I love my Penelope Luanne! Here are some pictures throughout the years - note that she loves wearing costumes and gets annoyed with me when I try to take them off of her! Enjoy!