Our Dog Penny

Rest in Peace

2008-12-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Penny had a bad run-in with some of Arizona's more unfriendly wildlife. Probably a coyote or mountain lion. He had to be put down on Saturday, December 6th, 2008.

March 12, 2007 – December 6th, 2008.

They grow up so fast...

2008-07-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

Femoral Head Ostectomy for Dummies

2008-04-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is how a normal dog's thigh bone connects to the hip sockets :

In surgery, they cut off this part:

Which leaves it looking like this:

While the result doesn't seem like it would work, they tell us it does. Apparently, "soft tissue" in the hip socket area will form a false joint.

Surgery to Fix Leg

2008-04-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

Penny's right leg has not been in good shape for the past 8 or so months. After a third (digital!) x-ray, they were finally able to find the cause. Basically, at the point where his thigh bone connects to the hip bone, the growth plate was somehow injured. They also found some arthritis in the area. Anyway, he had surgery yesterday that will hopefully fix it.

Dog Beach, San Diego

2008-03-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

When we went to San Diego last weekend, we took Penny to Dog Beach. He got to run around and play with all the other dogs (off leash!!!).

"Bubba" just got out of jail

2008-03-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

New Pics!

2008-02-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

We took some new pics of Penny over the weekend. Sunbeams are great for photography.

On a completely different note, when we got Penny, he was a scrawny little 3-pound dog. Almost a year later and he's now a scrawny little 9-pound dog!

Spoiled Penny...

2007-12-14T11:30:00.001-08:00

This is how Penny gets to go for cold, winter
walks to look at Christmas lights. Lucky Dog!

Good Laugh!

2007-12-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, Jon or I say
something funny and Penny
gets a big laugh. :-)

Raise you paw!

2007-12-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

<--All those who have been chased by Penny, raise you paw!!!

-->Penny likes to chase poor Buddha. He thinks cats taste good.

Granny to the Rescue!!!!

2007-12-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

Granny (aka his Maker) came to the rescue on Thursday the 13th. Penny's baby teeth (the K-9s), out of 4, 3 failed to fall out when they should have. Poor guy had a mouth full of teeth! Unfortunately, that is not a healthy thing. Fortunately though, for us, Granny was willing to pull those out!! Penny was soooooo happy seeing his Granny and Granny saved us a lot of $$, by us not having to go to the vet. Thank you Granny and Merry Christmas!! :-)

Cold Penny (buuurrrrrr!)

2007-12-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

Since the weather change, Penny has been shivering a lot more lately. Fortunately, a trip to Costco for a portable heater was perfect. (Other than his winter coats...) And warm he gets, but LOVES it!!!!

Thanksgiving Penny

2007-12-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Penny is always ready for a trip of fun! The three of us went to Tucson for Thanksgiving. Penny got to meet all the family! Grandma got to snap these great pictures of him!

Before & After

2007-11-20T10:17:00.000-08:00

Poor little dude...he's so embarrassed that he couldn't even show his face for the "after" pic.

Winker

2007-11-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Penny really likes to "work it" in front of the camera. He says he's just trying to give something back to the fans...

Baby Teeth

2007-10-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

Penny's baby teeth are falling out. We managed to find a few of them...

New Threads

2007-10-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

It's starting to get cold in the mornings. Cold enough to make Penny shiver. So we got him a winter coat.

Trip to the store: $3.00
Winter coat: $20.00
Cleaning the coat because it gets in the way when he pees: priceless.

The Graduate

2007-09-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

Penny graduated from his puppy training class at PetSmart. He actually learned a lot. Now he can do all the essentials--sit, stay, lay down, etc. He's also a lot better on the leash.

Doggie Daycare!

2007-08-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

We put Penny in doggie daycare. Leigh's in school most days now, and we weren't sure his bladder was ready to stay at home for 8 hours a day. At first he was petrified, but now I think he likes it. We're going to do it for another month or so until we feel better about leaving him at home all day.

Penny Meets Some Family

2007-08-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is the rest of Penny's first trip [to Tucson]...After spending the night at my Nina and Brandy's house, we went over to my parent's shop. This is where Penny meet my parents, Grandpa, Bob, numerous customers and the travelers from Florida-Hannah (seen in picture to the right), Wil and my Aunt Lori.

Penny even got to spend quality time
with Aunt Lori! What a lucky dog to
have such great family!! :)

Penny's First Trip!!

2007-08-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Penny just went on his first trip to Tucson. He rode in his crate in the front seat, buckled in, while I drove. He was great in the car, although a bit apprehensive!! (See pictures...) Our first stop was my Nina's to spend the night where he meet her, and Brandy, Nina's Cocker Spaniel. (See pic to right.)

Find out more next blog entry!! :)

Fake Testicles

2007-07-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

No joke--this guy really invented fake testicles that you can have implanted in your dog after he is neutered. They're called Neuticles. Apparently he noticed that his dog was very unhappy after he was neutered. What a surprise!

The Neuticles site claims that over 60,000 cats, dogs, horses and bulls have been "Neuticled" since 1995. They've even Neuticled a prairie dog, two water buffalo, a colony of rats, and a monkey.

Sad day...

2007-07-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

Penny was neutered this morning. He's not a happy camper right now. For the next 10 days he has to take it easy. He also got his rabies shot and had a computer chip implanted in him.

Great Pics

2007-07-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Leigh took some pictures with the late afternoon light coming in from the window. They came out great. Click here to see more of them.

Dogster

2007-07-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought it was pathetic that we have a blog for our dog...

We have also joined Dogster, which is like MySpace for dogs. I'm actually surprised at how much depth that site has. It's a really good site. Anyway, you can click on the picture at the right to go see Penny's profile there.

First Vet Trip!!

2007-07-27T15:21:00.001-07:00

Today, Penny had his first trip to the vet. He did really well! Penny now has an antibiotic prescription for bad bacteria in his GI tract. Penny will have to take it for the next week.

...Now, he will just be healthy enough for his neutering appointment!...;)

Penny The Monkey Killer/Lover

2007-07-27T15:13:00.001-07:00

I caught Penny in the act!!! First Penny tried to rip the monkey's arm off, then he French kissed it! It lead to quite a confused monkey.

Jail Break!!!

2007-07-25T16:07:00.001-07:00

Penny, Penny, oh why? Why did you have to escape from your prison of love? Not to mention, you used your good friend Monster to get out...

Crime Scene Photo.

Yesterday, Penny the Pincher had his first escape out of his play pen. The investigators [Jon, Sarah and myself] can neither deny nor confirm whether Penny the Pincher used in his plot, a poor, unsuspecting, innocent bystander, Monster-baby. But whatever happened that crazy, pad shredding afternoon, Monster-baby was left hung out to dry in the pen by himself, while Penny the Pincher did a 'nan-nan' face and pranced about the living room, a free doggie. Penny the Pincher was unusually quiet too, which sources confirm is a sign of premeditation. No charges have been filed, but the investigation is still ongoing...

Crime Scene Photo.

Eye Shine

2007-07-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

We were very surprised when we took these pictures and saw this amazing blue color in Penny's eyes. It's the same phenomenon cats are known for. The part of an animal's eye that causes this is called the "tapetum lucidum". It reflects light so that their eyes get a second chance to absorb it.

Apparently a lot of animals exhibit this. Not people, though. The "red eye" in people-photos is simply caused by the blood vessels in our eyes. However, the red you see in the owl below is actually the tapetum lucidum.

Oh Deer!!!

2007-07-23T17:11:00.001-07:00

Little Min Pin fact. "Germany is undisputed as the home of origin, where the Miniature Pincher was known as the "Reh Pincher" due to its resemblance to a small RED deer, the Reh, which freely roamed the German forests many years ago."

Stone Bone Crazy!

2007-07-23T17:03:00.001-07:00

Do you think he likes his bones???

Socializing with Other Dogs

2007-07-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Penny has a bit of a socialization problem. He does pretty good with people, but when he meets a normal-size dog, he barks incessantly and will even nip at them. The trainer at PetSmart says that these nips are not intended as bites, but I'm not so sure about that. It's hard to tell where the line is between a nip and a bite.

The Hunter

2007-07-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Click To Play

Penny Lounging by the Pool

2007-07-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here is Penny after a long day of swimming. He loves to snuggle up and cuddle in a towel.

Penny's Friends

2007-07-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Penny is a lucky doggie because he has such wonderful friends! There is nothing in the world as important for doggie (or human) as having good friends.

Here are some pics of Penny's great friends!

Roxi is the doggie with the pretty border around her pic and Monster is the doggie lounging on a blue towel, they belong to Sarah and Erik.
Scottie is the doggie with the red bandanna, she is sister of Indy, and she belongs to Bruce and Nikki.

Penny's Brother Indy

2007-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is Penny's brother. He has a longer snout than Penny and is quite the looker. More pics of Indy here.

Penny was the runt of the litter, and that becomes pretty clear when you take a look at Indy. They're both about 4 months old right now, but Indy probably weighs twice as much.

When we were at the breeder trying to decide which dog we would get, we came very close to picking Indy instead of Penny. Lucky for us, our friends Bruce and Nikki got him. That's good for us, good for Penny, good for Bruce and Nikki, and good for Indy. Sweet!

How Buddha Feels About Penny...

2007-07-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

Despite the picture on the right, we've had Penny at our condo for about 2 weeks now and Buddha is more curious than anything else. Although when Penny gets near him he runs away.

Bagheera (our other cat) is less curious. He just seems annoyed that there's a weird animal in the house. It only took 3 days before he hissed at Penny.

House-sitting Four Dogs

2007-07-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

We were recently house-sitting for some friends and ended up watching 4 dogs for a week. We really had our hands full. I made this little video so that we'll always remember the experience.

Click To Play

House Training

2007-07-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

We've been crate training him, which means we lock him in a little doggy carrier and take him out to potty every hour or so. If he goes potty when we take him out, we then play with him outside for a while. If he doesn't go potty, we put him back in the crate for a while. All day. Every hour.

When we take him to his potty area outside, he doesn't realize yet that it's just for potty and not play. He starts chewing leaves and sticks and playing. We try and say the words "go potty" as he pees or poops, so that he'll associate those words with it. Right now he's clueless.

He's 4 months old right now and has an INSANE amount of energy.

Dad is a Champ!

2007-06-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Penny's father was a champion showdog named "Carnie". In 2005 Carnie retired as the #2 Min Pin in the US. Aztex Min Pins even has a page all about him, including his pedigree.

From whence he came...

2007-06-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

Penny is a Miniature Pinscher. We got Penny from a breeder we found on the web called Aztex Min Pins, which is owned by a woman named Chris. She had a litter of puppies that were about 11 weeks old, and Penny was the runt of the litter. Chris was very kind and patient with all of our questions. She clearly cared a lot about placing her dogs in good homes.

We paid $400 for Penny. It's amazing that you can buy a purebred Min Pin from a breeder at affordable prices, while a pet store will charge you more than $2,000 (and they probably come from puppy mills).