Then There Were Two #

Because I was so impressed with Penny as she has to be the smartest dog I have ever seen. Her respect for what was her’s and what was ours she seemed to get and understand that almost immediately. If she was mad at you, she would not distroy anything that I have seem many dogs do, she might ignore you for a while and turn her back to you for a time just to let you know she did not appreciate being left alone for so long or what ever it was that got her upset.

One day Mary and I were driving somewhere and I just mentioned that we should get another younger Carin Terrier that Penny could train. Although we really wanted Penny to live forever we know that there will come a time when she will pass because of old age. I guess I was giving Mary permission to add another dog to our family.

Mary started searching the dog rescue places and found a Carin Terrier user group on line and then went out one day to see the dogs and took her Red Hat friend Carol and Penny to check them out. The dog she had in mind was already gone by the time she got there but she did see this other dog that wasn’t a pure Carin Terrier as I think that there might be some Border Terrier in her as she did have longer legs. Penny has really short legs and she has to move them really quickly to keep up. Any way, the two dogs sniffed noses and seemed very social to each other so she took this as a good sign and brought her home.

We named her Missy and she came from a dog hording situation where there were about 50 mostly big dogs in a small house. Missy was 7 years old when we got her and I am pretty sure that she was scared and terrified for the first 7 years of her life. She was always worried when she was eating like she expected someone to attack her and was very nervous that Penny was walking around freely when she ate. For a while we leashed Penny up while she ate and pretty soon Penny understood what was going on and would just lay in her bed while Missy would eat.

For the most part the two dogs got along really well. What really turned things around for Missy was one day she was outside, exploring the yard (she loved the out doors) and a neighbour dog saw her and started barking at her. Penny went galloping out there and really gave that dog a barking to, getting her to back off. Penny can really make herself sound way bigger than she is when she needs to. Missy just looked at Penny with such admiration as I don’t think any dog had ever tried to defend her in the past. After that she started paying more attention to Penny and started to learn from her.

The two girls (both of the dogs are female) really got close when Mary and I went to Paris for 10 days. We had a neighour lady come by 3 times a day to feed and water them and unlock the doggy door in the morning and lock it up at night. One day while we were in Paris, Mary was watching the dogs from the camera’s that we had in the house and Missy was eating her meal and it looked like Penny was standing guard. Missy really bonded with Penny and started acting more and more like a normal dog and alot of that skiddish behaviour was falling away. Needless to say, the experiment was successful and even though Missy will never be as smart as Penny, her life was greatly improved by having Penny as her mentor and life couch.