Meet Penelope - gone from the physical, far too soon, but with us still in Spirit...

Sometimes in life you are given a gift you really, really want.  The want is because of a need.  The want is created because your  heart is hurting and you need someone special to nurture who will give you unconditional love in return.

Penelope was so precious and so full of joy, I just wanted to take her home with me, although she was the darling pet of very dear friends in Channelview, Texas.   Rachelle saw Penelope and I had a special bond and had me promise to care for Penelope for the rest of her life.  That part of the promise was easy.  Then my friends and medical professionals tried to talk me out of the gift, letting me know changing my mind is okay and reminding me of the risks involved. 

I was exhausted from my 2014 California tour, headed into more research with Dr. Pennington on my protocol and was homesick.  My friends recognized I needed encouragement and cheering up but was also feeling frail.  Falling in love is always a risk.  With Penelope and I, it was mutual love at first sight.

I talked with Tommy and he said "We have two dogs here who miss you.  It is your call and I will support your decision".

Penelope was the dearest gift and a risk we are so pleased we accepted  and took. 

Penelope could best be described as an "ecstatic" - ecstatic
[ek-stat-ik] /ɛkˈstæt ɪk/ 

  • subject to or in a state of ecstasy; full of joy; rapturous;

    a person (she thought she was human) subject to fits of ecstasy;

  •  one who lives in a continual state of sudden, intense, overpowering emotion

    Penelope taught us soooooo much.  For one thing, she taught us that food allergies and health challenges can create problems with bladder control that dietary changes could ease and pee pads could make into a workable situation.  She taught us the joy of even the simplest and the most complex of concepts of daily living.  

    Penelope taught us Joe Guerra's foot bumping boogie and the real depth of Rachelle's and Joe's true love for her and for me.  Penelope taught us that no matter how long we were gone (even to throw out the trash) it was far too long to be gone.  Penelope also taught us that her herding was a responsibility, as well as a natural instinct, for a dog who has both Cairn and Norwich/Norfolk Terrier in her blood lines. 

    Penelope's first meeting and each subsequent gathering with my 88 year old mother taught mom the absolute joy and surprise of a huge leap ending with a lick in the face while landing in her lap.  To say their visits together were prime examples of Flying GUSTO in action is an understatement.  
     
    Penelope taught us how to be patient with squatters who were pregnant   However, once the younguns were grown, she showed us how to evict the squatters - chipmunks, possums and groundhogs.  She was working on back yard squirrel evictions when her life was cut short by a pulmonary embolism on 3-19-2017.

    The pulmonary embolism was the risk in January 2015 that the  veterinarian in Texas had warned me was a minute by minute danger and would  eventually happen.  The veterinarian thought the embolism would happen very soon, if not sooner, to the precious little dog he held in his arms.  I was  already in love with her - it was too late to not take the risk.  Falling in love is something that happens whether you want to or not.  
     
    The veterinarian had cried when he discovered the reason for her incessant panting and offered to put her to sleep then and there.  Penelope was such a ball of smiling and jumping energy as she had so much life in her that she wanted to share with everyone as much and for as long as she possibly could.  That jumping joy also increased the risk of a pulmonary embolism.  To tranquilize her also had high risks and this was advised against.  Just let her live life to its fullest the veterinarian advised, and we gladly complied.

    Not much contained her, including dog gates inside the house, which she would break down, outside gates that she would figure out how to open, and hearts so full of overwhelming cares and locked down tight that she would open through laughter and the joy of the moment.

    This ability to open that which was locked was one of her many gifts.  Penelope was expert at sharing her gifts with all.  She used her gifts to her advantage and often.

    I had told the veterinarian I needed to know options, what could be done, what to  expect, and asked how to handle it all.  The veterinarian was right - the heartache potential would increase with time.  But  knowing Penelope was on borrowed time helped us stay aware of how important each moment with her was.  Having the foreknowledge of Penelope's health challenge helped us be better pet parents to all of our furry and feathery family members.
      
    Penelope had our neighbor's convinced she was being tortured often.  We had to explain that whenever she saw her next door neighbors, Bailey and Jackie, whenever Tommy came home from a gig, or when the leashes were brought out she HAD to make a LOT of noise.  The cause of the cacophony was her absolute joy and excitement spilling out in voice, loud and strong, accompanied by rapid high jumps and fast spinning circles.
     
    It did not take Penelope long to train Tommy how to properly allow her to be the center of attention first, then to add in side petting for Buddy and Rigley.  Tommy was smitten from day one by Penelope's exuberance and love of life.  Penelope was equally smitten by Tommy who played with her daily, shared lap time and rewarded her often with treats.  They thoroughly enjoyed spoiling each other. 

    The first night Penelope spent with me there was no crate, so she had to sleep inside the shower of LaDonna and Gilbert's travel trailer.  The next day I bought her a crate which only lasted in use for a few weeks once she arrived home in Indiana.  Oddly - once we got to Indiana, only Buddy or Rigley slept in Penelope's crate and she slept in whoever's bed belonged to the dog who was sleeping in her crate! 

     The crate had worked very well for the rest of my stay in Texas, where Penelope and I also shared the clinic of The Spiritual Plumbers, and the home of Connie and Alice while doing research with Dr. Pennington between stays at Joe and Rachelle's place in LaDonna and Gilbert's travel trailer.  Heidi, Dustin, Art, Roger, Connie, Alice and Jimmy, David and his son all fell in love with Penelope.  She was so easy to love!  On the way back to Indiana Penelope and I spent several days with Ray Houston in Gallatin, Tennessee.  Ray also fell in love with Penelope.  She had that effect on everyone, whether they were humans or animals.

    Penelope left us lots of holes to remember her by:  in the back screen door, in the dirt in the garden, in Buddy's ear from playing too rough, and in our hearts.  All the holes either have been mended (Buddy's ear required emergency surgery by Dr. Ed Rademacher of Allen Veterinary Clinic) or they are holes that will be mended soon.  The holes that will not be mended soon are the difficult exceptions as those holes are the ones in our hearts, which she lovingly had kept full of joy every precious moment we had with her.

    Early on the morning of 3-19-2017, Penelope dutifully pottied on her pee pads after I went to bed at 5:30 A.M.  Then she left us a very clear message to share with her Texas family.  Instead of her normal routine of getting into her plush bed in the kitchen, she stepped into the shower, laid down all curled up with her left side down on the shower floor.  There she slipped between the veils of this dimension into the next.
     
    Just as she had lived in life with the biggest smile imaginable on her face, she died.  We think she knew all along that her time was short and as a result, lived every second to its fullest, wasting no time on regrets or a bad attitude.  

    She knew that her entry point and her exit point into our lives was a shower, although 1600 miles apart.  When Rachelle first rescued Penelope, the shower was the first option.  The shower, regardless of location, provided the connection for her to her loving families in both Texas and Indiana, then and now, and forever.

    Thank you Penelope for sharing your gifts and your life with us.
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    We love you.