It all started when my parents were talking about getting a puppy… One that we would raise, but they could take over caring for if necessary. So of course, there was a lot of debate about what kind we should get… Big dog or little dog? Boy or girl? Breed? Color? All kinds of things to consider! My parents decided a Yorkie would be the best, but after a potential opportunity to get one fell through, my mom said “You guys pick it! It’s going to be your dog anyways!”
So over the weekend, David and I started looking up puppies for sale in the area. We started with my favorite breed, Cavapoos (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Poodle mix). One website had some pictures of one, and it was SO CUTE I literally started SOBBING. Like, FULL ON sobbing. It was THAT cute (and hormones may have played a small part).
On Monday, we had several hours to kill before I had to go to work, so David and I decided to go into town, browse around different pet shops, and see what they have.
I was very excited, because the first store we stopped at had cavapoos! YAY! They had 3; two 8-weeks old (brother and sister), and another boy that was 10-weeks old.
Now, in order for us to make a decision, there are several tests (some official, some we made up) the puppy has to pass in order be considered.
1) The Nose Test: You hold the puppy up to your nose. If it licks it, it’s friendly. If it looks away from you, it’s probably not very sociable. If it bites it. Ouch.
2) The Paw Test: You gently squeeze the pads of each foot to see how sensitive its feet are. (Or something like that. I left David in charge of that test, since I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. But it sounded important).
3) The Calling Test: You call the puppy and see if it comes.
4) The Back Test: You lay the puppy on its back to see how submissive and/or trusting it is.
5) The Eye Test: Check its eyes. Make sure they blink at the same time, check for any abnormalities or any cloudiness.
There are probably several more tests you can run, but these were the main ones we did.
Now, pet shopping with David is kind of interesting, because he has something about him that causes animals to gravitate towards him. It’s the craziest thing! Whenever we go over to someone’s house that has animals, he somehow manages to end up with all the pets on top of him.
Exhibit A:
Anyways, so the first two cavapoos we looked at, both boys, seemed partial to David. They’d run to him regardless of who called them. And one of the boys, the 10-week old, seemed a little, well… slow. Or like he had the puppy version of ADHD. He wasn’t terribly sociable (didn’t pass the nose test), and would get distracted whenever we called him. He’d start walking toward us, but then would be like “OOO! A FENCE!” and run the opposite direction. He seemed like he’d be super quirky and cute, but not exactly what we wanted in a puppy.
So then we met the girl. She was super sweet, passed all the tests, AND came to both David and me equally, which was an unexpected bonus! She was social, playful, healthy, trusting… perfect. And SUPER cute!!!
So we called my mom to let her know, and she gave us permission to go ahead and get her. 🙂 Hoorayyy!!!!!
Then we had the task of trying to pick out a name for the most adorable puppy in the whole wide world (if I do say so myself). Most of my family’s dogs have had a Greek mythology themed name (a rottweiler named Athena, a Pekingese named Persephone – Persy for short), so I thought of some names along those lines…. And I thought of Penelope, but call her Penny! And as soon as I said “Penny,” the puppy perked up her ears! And it seemed so perfect for her!
We considered other names of course too… We thought of World of Warcraft themed names, such as Ysera and Alexstraza… but they didn’t seem quite right. We thought of Linnielee (a name I made up) and Annie…. But nothing seemed quite as perfect as Penny. 🙂
And we love her so much!! She is so smart and so sweet! And so little and cute!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, she’s so cute, I can hardly stand it!!!!
Epic Adventures of an Ordinary Life 