Penny.

The old Pennster!
She was a real character, a brindle lurcher, part greyhound, part saluki, part border collie.
She was a rescue from Fen Bank Greyhound Rescue and at about eleven years old she had had a chequered career. Certainly she had been used as a coursing dog, the state of her feet alone proved that. And the fact that she couldn't bear her ears touched was evidence that she had been restrained at the start of the course by holding her ears. And they were such beautiful, large, velvety ears; it took me a year to get to fondle them.
She was a big softie and very desperate for love. The facts of her life that Fen Bank could give included the coursing, at least two litters of pups a spell in a Gerry Green Rescue from where an old lady took her in. She came to Fen Bank after the old lady died and Penny was quite traumatised after spending three days alone with her before they were found. This left her anxious about being left alone but she soon settled in and was well behaved.
I had lost my soul-dog, Misty, five months before Penny came along. I wasn't really ready for another dog... for any pet in fact. I was alone but still tied to Misty (I will be forever tied to her). But friends nagging me wore me down and I agreed to go to Fen Bank telling myself I would only consider a brindle lurcher because I knew that was the least likely animal they would have in. And there she was, the only lurcher and brindle. I took her for a walk and she was perfectly well behaved and arriving back at the kennel block she pressed so tight to me when they made to take her lead and shut her away again... I couldn't do it to her. So she came home with me.
I freely admit I did Penny a great injustice. I credited her with the less than inspiring intelligence of greyhounds and over looked that streak of border collie in her make up. She was very bright. Collie bright. Unfortunately she had the neurotic tendencies of the saluki and when that was in evidence we seldom saw eye to eye. She could drive me crazy with her sometimes constant whining, I once taped her and played it to the lady who ran Fen Bank and she promptly declared me a saint and said she would turn her out to live in shed if she lived with her. But I came to realise that these "sessions" coincided with some stress in my life and were Penny's response to my sad mood or my anxiety. But I still found hours of whining very hard to cope with.
It got so bad that Fen Bank paid for us to have ten Reiki sessions and it was on our first visit that I became the patient and found out that Penny was responding to my moods.
After Reiki it was MacTimoney and Penny charmed the young lady who came once a week to help with her back problems.
We had two and a half years together with many ups and downs and though I loved her I will always feel she is the one animal I did let down a bit. She was a lovely, charming old rogue of a dog, a true lurcher. And it was Penny who probably saved my life on the night of the Lincolnshire earth quake on 27th Feb. 2008 when our house was shaken by a quake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale. She refused to let me go upstairs to bed that night and so I was snoozing on the hearth rug with her when the quake struck. Later, in my bedroom, I found an ornate piece of smith wrought iron work had fallen from the wall onto my pillow. If it hadn't killed me it would certainly have done some nasty damage.... Thank You, Penny!
Thinking of Penny I see her smile. Yes, she was one of those dogs who really smiled. And her smile was especially charming because she had had surgery to remove all the little teeth, top and bottom between her canines. She had a silly, looney tunes toothless grin. I can still see her looking very sheepish when I came back to finish my lunch after taking a phone call.... I found Penny standing on the hearth rug with a burst yogurt pot in her mouth, yogurt sprayed all over her face and the biggest silly grin designed to say, "It wasn't me, mum, honest!".
The end came very quick. She was prone to urinary tract infections and one diagnosed on the Friday morning raced, overnight, into her kidneys and the vet released her on the morning of 22nd November 2008, a snowy morning where she left her distinctive broken toed prints across the lawn.... prints that had vanished with the snow when I got home an hour later.

OLD WOLF
by
James Taylor

Lopes on purpose, paddling the snow
Of the soft-blown winterlocked landscape,
Under the loaded branches in the hush of forests.
Stops for its own reasons, shapeless
In the white shadows that have
Stopped breathing.
The prints run into the dark and
The stars wheel, circling the silence.

The last two lines are inscribed on Penny's casket.

You made her last years her happy years

Rest in peace penny

Hugs
Xxxx

What a lovely tribute, RIP Penny

Lovely tribute hunni.

Hugs
JO xx

What a really really lovely tribute. She sounds like she would have made you smile A LOT.

Hope you are having loads of fun at the bridge Penny :-)

She's sounds like she way lovely! And what a lovely tribute.

I'm a little envious of all the amazing animals you've had in your life. Aside from the heartache when they leave, of course

Yes, I've had some wonderful animal friends. I think it's down to me being alone with them. Once father died and it was just me in the house I began collecting my little family and we all got along really well.... apart from Clawed and Riley, he worshipped her, she wanted nothing more than to rip his face off! But one-one relationships and those in a very quiet, natural environment opened the doors to wonder.