PENNY

I’ve always liked friendly dogs. As a boy I had several. I’d play with them, feed them, water them, give my heart to them and do everything I could for them except take them to the Vet and pay for them. However, in our home we always had one cardinal rule. The dogs stay outside and never come in the house. If the weather was bad they could stay in their dog house or a utility room, but never, never in the main home. Dog “accidents,” footprints, dog hair on the couch, shoes chewed up, fleas and ticks on our rugs, and dog smell all over the house were avoided. I thought everyone thought that way and then I grew up.

Many pet owners love their animals in the house. It makes them feel like the pet is a real member of the family, almost human…almost. I married into that disposition and it was a source of aggravation between us on many occasions. We had cats, rats, gerbils, goldfish, tropical fish, turtles, and dogs. Thankfully, not all at once. We might have had cows & horses, but we couldn’t get them to fit in our living room. After the first couple of weeks, the newness would wear off, routine would set in and the animal would begin to feel neglected.

I was gone trying to earn a living during these early days and would attempt to ignore the animal as well but I couldn’t stand to see the water or food bowl empty or a Vet appointment skipped. A pile of brown, gooey, bad smelling waste, that I would find on my way to the bathroom, in the middle of the night, with my bare feet, was particularly annoying and disgusting.

Mom & the kids would promise to take care of the animal if I would “please, please,” let them keep the puppy or gerbil or whatever, but it never seemed to work out. Eventually, there I was buying dog food, keeping Vet appointments, feeding it, watering it, changing the litter and generally keeping the very thing that I didn’t want in the house, from dying. It was all very disheartening. Then Penny came into our life.

On the 14th of March, 1980, when we were in the U.S. Air Force, living in Okinawa, Japan, my wife was given a Bassett Hound named Penny. The dog’s former owners were moving back to the States and the shipping costs and fees were too high to warrant taking the dog with them, so they gave it away to her. Penny was four years old and good with kids. We had four kids, two boys and two girls, the youngest about three, the oldest about nine. I wanted no part of more work to do, that now included a dog, but as usual I was O.B.E. (Overcome by Events) The first day, Penny was swamped with attention, beginning with a bath. Maybe this time, this pet would be taken care of by everyone…maybe.

About two weeks later, on the 31st of March, my wife, Jean, and the kids were presented with an opportunity to visit with her parents for a month in Utah. In no time, they were all gone and that left me alone with guess who? Penny. It was the same old story, repeated again, but this time with a new twist. The only attention the dog would get would be from me and I left at about 6AM every day and returned about twelve hours later. Now we have a social dog, living in a different house, virtually all by herself, during the day, with a guy who doesn’t want her there.
It didn’t take long for her to become pretty neurotic. She would howl during the day, in loneliness, urinate on the floor, because there was no one to take her outside. On one walk, while the two of us were on the sidewalk, in government housing, a cat sprang from her porch and attacked Penny with scratches all about the face before I could get her free. The poor dog cried in agony for days after that when I tried to touch her face. She required about four walks a day for exercise and bladder emptying and when I wasn’t there, she used our carpet to relieve herself in both liquid and solid form. At night, she would insist on sleeping with me by hopping up on my bed. If I didn’t let her, she would howl and keep me awake.

Adding to the problem were her ear mites. Tiny little spider-like insects that would live and multiply in her ear drums, would give her serious pain and required ear drops from the Vet in her ears three times a day. The long floppy ears may look cute in Hush Puppy commercials, but they are a nest for all sorts of bacteria, especially in Okinawa’s humid climate. She frequently pulled at her ears and hated to have the ear drops put in. Bassett Hounds are a cross between a blood hound and a Beagle and the breed is known for eye infections and arthritis, built into the mix.

She was lonely and in physical pain. I would come home; the house would stinks of dog urine, feces, and vomit. I’d clean it up, walk the dog and be kept up most of the night by a dog howling in serious agony. By the time Jean got home with the kids, I also was a serious wreck physically from lack of sleep. Many times after that glorious month, the dog was much more trouble than it was worth, but we, yes we, loved her anyway. Finally, in March of 1983, we left Okinawa, but couldn’t find any new owners to take her over for us. I wound up turning her into the base dog pound the day before we left and was told that if no one offered to take her over within the next two weeks, she would be put to sleep. I don’t know if anyone claimed her; I rather doubt it, but I believe she has a spirit, as we do and that we’ll see her again, by and by and she’ll be happy, healthy and wagging her tail.