Pennygirl caught my eye in no time at all!

It was mid-August, 2020 and after searching for our new family dog on several online sites, I absolutely fell in love with our Penny, on Niagara Dog Rescue's website! Her beautiful, cinnamon brown eyes were saying to me: I will be just perfect for your family, if you just give me a chance! I have been looking for you too! That was all I needed- that look on Penny's face in her profile picture! I filled out an application to adopt Penny right then and there and submitted it! Fingers crossed!!

Twenty-four hours later, the call came from a volunteer for Niagara Dog Rescue(NDR). It was Dave, saying he had looked over my application to adopt Penny and was it ok to have a phone interview, since it was the height of the Covid-19 outbreak and all home visits had been suspended indefinitely. We had a very long and detailed phone interview instead. These were some of the many questions Dave asked: 1/ Had we ever adopted a pet before?- no 2/ Why did we want to adopt a dog? - because we decided we'd love to save a life rather than purchase another dog as we had purchased our Toby (his nickname was Tobydoodle) from a breeder 3/ Did we have any pets currently?- no, our beloved Labradoodle, Tobydoodle had just passed unexpectedly on July 18, this year 4/Any past pets, dogs or other?- yes, Tobydoodle, 3 past guinea pigs named G.P.(named after the tv show "Once Upon a Hamster" from when my kids were growing up), Buddy and Butterscotch(we had to rehome Buddy because he was just better as an only guinea pig and luckily, one of my son's little friends was able to adopt him!) and a White Albino Lop Ear Bunny named Buster! (who, amazingly, lived for 12 years! He was a wonderful pet who was litter trained so he could hop around the house to his heart's content!) 5/ Are we at home during the day or if we worked would someone be home during the day to care for Penny? And if not, what was our plan to care for her when we weren't home? -Well, I was retired from my profession of ultrasound and my husband, Jamie, was working from home so we knew we had the time in our lives to adopt, train and love a rescue dog! After the telephone interview, Dave asked me to go around our entire house and take pictures inside and outside to make sure our home would be a safe space for Penny to live in as a newly rescued pup. I sent all the pics to Dave for review and waited another 24 hours, really hoping we would be bringing Penny home soon! When I got the call from Dave that we had been approved to adopt Penny, I was so, so happy! Dave explained that if we agreed to adopt Penny, she'd be coming to Canada from Texas via transport, with 13 other puppies! We would be meeting our Penny in Niagara-on-the-Lake at a designated meeting place.

It was 3 1/2 hours from our home in Trenton, Ontario and it was on this drive that I started the book about our Penny, entitled "Pennygirl's Rescue"!