PENNY!!

 Penny has been a member of the family for about a month now.  She is an awesome dog, and we are lucky to have her.  First off, she is good with Zoe and that alone makes me love her.  She tolerates Zoe's attempts at gentleness and sometimes genuinely seems to care for her.  The other day, I called everyone in.  Zoe (surprise) didn't come, and Penny, who usually comes quick as a whip, waited with Zoe and then followed her in.  I see them huddled together in quiet places...Penny chewing something, and Zoe right in her face.  And once I even saw Zoe handing Penny one of Ethan's shoes to chew.  Thick as thieves, those two!

As you can see, Ethan isn't as thrilled with the newest member of the family.  And in all honesty, there are some less savory aspects to her personality.  Initially, we thought her a very calm dog who liked to cuddle.  Turns out, she was probably a little shell-shocked by her new situation and was keeping her true puppy-hood under wraps.  She likes to chew, dig, and jump on people.  The jumping scares Ethan, and given their sizes, I don't blame him.  Her nails are sharp and we all have some scratches.  Penny is working on her manners, and Ethan is getting better at being firm with her.  "Down, Penny!"

Over all, she is a delight.  She has these fits, where she must RUN!  She takes off in laps of the backyard and for no obvious reason, she leaps like a gazelle.  It looks like the dog equivalent of kicking up your heels.  She can leap over our garden wall from a stand-still, and our little Houdini has found multiple ways of getting out of our fenced backyard, but she never goes anywhere except the front yard, and usually to the front door to get back in.  I'm surprised that a dog who spent so much time in a kennel would attach to her family so quickly.  Jeff looks a little sour in this picture, but he's smitten with her, too.  He is her favorite cuddler.

Oh, and I have to mention the bones.  We give her chewy after chewy and she must bury them everywhere!  In the back yard, she has her special places and she visits them when she goes out to make sure they are still there.  In the house, she buries them under pillows, blankets, and such.  Sometimes when she's locked out of the bedrooms she literally walks around with a bone in her mouth crying because she can't find a place to put it.  Yesterday, I almost put one in the wash, because she had buried it in the laundry.