A Penny For Your Thoughts

For those of you who do not know the story of Penny, I cannot let my mother’s life go without writing of her faithful canine companion. 

Penny is a mixed breed “mutt”.  I’m not really sure what she is…a little of this and a little of that.  She’s tan in color, an expressive face…one ear stands up and the other flops over.  She’s a tough little cookie, and she’s about as special a dog as a dog could ever be.

Today, after mom’s body was removed from the house, Penny lay by mom’s bed…and if a dog could be described as moping, Penny was that dog.  I thought back to that couple of hours after mom died.  So many strangers had entered the house.  Two EMTs, a member of the Sheriff’s Department, a woman with the coroner’s office and two men from the funeral home.  None of these people had ever entered this house before…but Penny did not bark one time at anyone.  I cannot tell you how unusual this is.  Penny barked at her own car sometimes.  She barked if a car slowed down on the road.  But today she was silent.  She let all the people tend to mom that needed to tend to her. 

Tonight she’s been struggling to settle down.  I’ve been back in the bedroom and she was sleeping in the living room…but not on her mat.  Instead she was at the end of the hallway where she could see down the hallway and see the light in my room.  My heart broke for her.  I called her back here and put the blanket from mom’s bed on the floor…and she came straight to the blanket to lie down and is now resting at the foot of the bed…safe in the room with me.

I’d like all of you to know the kind of parents I had and the Penny story is a good way to show you their hearts.  They had traveled to Arcadia 15 years ago…about this time of year.  Arcadia is about 20 miles down the interstate from here.  As they were getting back on the interstate to head home, they saw a bedraggled, starving young dog in the edge of the woods.  The got to the next exit, turned around, drove into Arcadia and bought dog food at the local grocery store.  They came back to the interstate entrance and tried to call the puppy, but she was too scared to approach them…standing among the trees…trembling.  So they poured out some of the dry dog food alongside the road and left.  They came back the next day to discover the food was gone.  They called for the puppy but saw no sign of her.  But they poured more food and went home. 

Day number three was the magic day:  the puppy was waiting for them and this time she let them approach.  They took almost two hours, working patiently to win the trust of the little copper-colored dog.  They knew she was in serious trouble physically…all her ribs were showing and there were marks on her body where she’d been mistreated.  Slowly…so slowly…they worked their way toward her until they were able to touch her and then gently pick her up and wrap her in a towel.  They took her straight to the vet and the vet warned that the little dog was so far gone that he wasn’t sure she’d survive…but he’d do all he could for her.

Fifteen years later Penny sat by mom’s side through the last weeks of her life.  Yesterday afternoon, in one of her lucid moments, mom asked to be allowed to pet her doggy.  We got mom one of Penny’s treat bones and she called Penny over.  Penny was so funny…she usually gets a bone only for doing her duty outside.  She seemed a little confused that she was getting a free bone.  But I love that mom was aware of Penny on that last full day of her life and wanted to treat her companion to something special.

Tomorrow Penny will move to a new home.  Mom has a dear, sweet teaching friend who has offered to make a home for both Penny and Callie.  Callie actually has a sweet story too.  Mom and Dad were houseparents at a maternity home when Callie returned with some of the girls one afternoon as they walked the back country road.  “Look what followed us home,” the girls implored.  Mom and Dad were pretty sure the pretty calico-colored cat had been coaxed into following the girls, even though the girls assured that was not what happened.  Calls were made and it was determined that it would be okay for the cat to stay as long as she was an outside kitty and they got her to the vet immediately to have her spayed.  But the next day when dad delivered the little cat to the vets office it was already too late…she was “with kittens” (Is that how you say “with child” for a cat?)  How smart was Callie????  She’d found her way to a maternity home to have her babies!

Callie has been sleeping on mom’s bed ever since it was set up in the living room.  I watched her this past week move up the bed each day.  She’d been sleeping in the bottom left corner near the vibrating box that blew up the air mattress that cushioned mom and helped prevent bedsores.  She’d slept almost on mom’s knees last Friday.  Sunday she was in mom’s lap…and I believe she would have moved up to mom’s chest today if we had let her.  She knew…cats know.

So these sweet faithful companions will move to their new home tomorrow.  And if you know animals at all, you know they will have some shaky days ahead while they adjust.  Fifteen years is longer than many marriages last…and these two have only known mom and dad as their companions until recently.  Pray for our dog and cat that they will know they are loved (because they will be) and that they won’t be frightened or overwhelmed with all the changes and the loss they are facing.  We are blessed to know that they will be in good hands.  But my heart is sad for them tonight.  There’s no way to explain the loss and the changes to them.  We can only trust God to help them understand.

Thank you, Penny and Callie, for filling mom's final year with love and companionship...and for all the years of your wonderful antics and love and faithfulness that brought so much joy to both mom and dad.  You could both be poster children for the love an animal has for its owner.  May you both be blessed in your new home with lots of love and peace and joy as you live out the rest of your days.