Penny's adoption story

I promised this story awhile ago and it's been sitting in my drafts for a while. I finally finished it! :)

On a cold rainy Sunday (Feb. 6), Ben & I headed down to Bow Wow Haus, a dog store in downtown Vancouver, to check out an adoption event. The event was for some small dogs, mostly chihuahua crosses, that had been pulled from high kill shelters in the states and brought to Vancouver to find homes. I had sort of fallen in love with the photo of one of the dogs: they were calling her AJ. We'd been talking about getting another dog for awhile, but I wanted a pug (BADLY) and Ben wanted a terrier, we knew we would rescue so might not end up with either, and figured this was all a ways down the road when we had more space. I also had sworn that I wouldn't get another puppy for a very long, possibly indefinite amount of time. My next dog would be an adult! After checking AJ 's photo a bunch of times I found out that she was about 4 months old. I kept looking at her picture anyways, and we figured we would go down to the event to "just check it out."

"It will be interesting either way"
"We don't know what she'll be like"
"We don't know if we want another dog right now"

Yada yada. Once we got there everyone lined up to go in one at a time to meet the dogs and I got increasingly anxious about people going in before us.

"What if they all apply for the dogs we wanted to meet first?" (Even though we might not get one, of course. Uh huh.)
"That girl has been cuddling AJ forever!" (Ok, so Ben's version of what I said is "That hoochie has my dog!").

Although I'd sort of fallen for AJ 's face, there were two other wiry-haired pups we thought we wanted to meet as well. Once we got there, though, I only had eyes for the masked girl. Once we (finally) got in to meet the pups a little girl was holding AJ and I asked if I could say hello. She said "Sure!" and plopped her into my arms. She snuggled up under my chin and I was in love. After a few minutes of cuddling and trying to get her & Josie to meet (they were indifferent, which Ben figures is Josie's version of "she's great!" as it doesn't entail her barking like crazy) I filled out the adoption application, with lots of emphatic writing and hearts around her name.

I forget what Ben's comment was later, but I remember saying that it was both of our choice, and he could've said no if he didn't think it was a good idea to get her, to which he replied "You didn't see your face! There was no choice!" So anyways, as you know, we now have a new dog! Haha. We named her Penny and she's about six months old now: our guess is she's a chihuahua crossed with a daschund. Our vet & my friend Liz, the groomer at FurDoos where I used to work, told us she's a month older than we were told when we adopted her, and also contrary to what we were told, she probably won't get any bigger! She is so tiny! I think we sort of won the lottery: we didn't really know what we were getting seeing as she's a rescue. She came into the shelter in California as a stray, so there's really no info on her from before. She's solid and healthy though and has had hardly any accidents in the house, doesn't bark much, sleeps well in her crate, is sweet as pie, and is shy but not fearful or snippy or anything. She & Josie are getting along really well and play together all the time. Everyone that's met her has fallen in love with her. She's pretty awesome and we're pretty lucky :)

PS: Want a good laugh? AJ was short for "Angelina Jolie." Yup. For reals.