My Life-Changing Dogs

Adoption Story: We brought Lucy home on 7/12/2004. She was approx. 8 months old at the time. For years, my husband wanted a female brindle pit bull and when we bought our house on July 1, 2004, I checked the website for our local shelter. On the first page, was a female brindle pit bull! We brought our girl home as soon as we could, even though I still wasn't too sure about the whole owning a dog thing. It didn't take me long to fall in love.

Liked: Everyone she met! Midnight belly rubs. Sour flavored anything. Snuggling with her daddy. Patrolling the yard against squirrels and rabbits. Walks. Going new places. Rides in the car.

Disliked: Squirrels in her backyard. 

Best Trick: High 5, lay down, roll over. She was also a lifesaving blood donor through Blue Ridge Veterinary Blood Bank.

Health Issues: Low-grade heart murmur her whole life. Lucy suffered from "happy tail syndrome" and we had to have her tail partially amputated in 2011. At the end of April 2014, Lucy collapsed on our walk. Over the course of several weeks, she suffered with episodes of tremors which then progressed to seizures. It took several months to get her properly diagnosed, but Lucy suffered from an unusual cancer called insulinoma. We had quite a journey over the course of 18 months.  Lucy's journey with us ended on 10/14/15.

Lessons Taught to Her Humans: The power of unconditional love. Sometimes I feel like I was a Grinch before Lucy came along, and thanks to her, my heart grew 3 sizes. If it wasn't for Lucy, we wouldn't have these other amazing dogs and there would be so many amazing people whom I wouldn't have otherwise met. She sparked my passion in life and I always hope to do her proud.

Rescue Story: We brought home on 12/1/2005 at approx. 4 years old. She was an informal rescue, found by a Good Samaritan in Baltimore City. This Good Samaritan was an acquaintance of my father who arranged a meet & greet for us. We did everything wrong when introducing a new dog to the house, but luckily Lucy & Kahlua became inseparable best friends for the rest of their lives.

Liked: Loving everyone. Being a homebody. Being a little ornery at times. Cleaning Lucy’s ears. Snuggling. Instigating wrestling matches with Lucy. Chasing rabbits with Lucy. Napping in the sunbeams. Waking me up everyday 2 minutes before the alarm clock went off. Chocolate – there were several incidents over the years.

Disliked: Leaving the house for any reason caused intense whining. Loud voices. Loud noises like thunder and fireworks.

Best Trick: Sit - if you caught her on a good day. But she was the time keeper of our house, waking me up each morning with her whining. She actually saved us from being late on more than one occasion, when the power went out and our alarm didn’t go off!

Health Issues: Ruptured both CCLs.  Mast Cell Cancer (but we didn't have a diagnosis until it was too late). Kahlua's journey with us ended on 3/1/15.

Lessons Taught to Her Humans: Patience. Appreciating each dog as an individual. How special it is to be loved by an old dog. To appreciate living in the moment. 

Rescue Story:  We brought Penny home on 8/27/15. 4 days before that, I found her in an alley in northwest Baltimore City while volunteering with a friend’s TNR organization. I fell in love with her immediately. We did the responsible thing and took her to the shelter for a 72-hour stray hold. We brought her home ASAP and she was my best friend for next 7 1/2 years.

Liked: Carrying things in her mouth, especially slippers, shoes and socks. Everyone she meets! Adventure. Car rides with her head hanging out the window! Sleeping. Snuggling. Burrowing under the blankets. Snuggling with Neno, even if she won’t admit it. Cauliflower – she went crazy for it!

Disliked: Fireworks and other loud or otherwise startling noises. Sitting on cold surfaces. People walking by the house.

Best "Trick": Penny was a retired life-saving blood donor through Blue Ridge Veterinary Blood Bank.  Howling at ambulances. "Place" and "down." 

Health Issues:  Penny was our first allergy dog, Penny also suffered a severe issue with her gut health after several rounds of antibiotics. Penny was a success story for Microbiome Restorative Therapy. It was through Penny’s health issues that I developed the Dog Health Journal system, which help us save Penny’s hearing when she had a medication reaction! Penny suffered a sudden health crisis and her journey with us ended on 1/15/23.

Lessons Taught to Her Humans: It’s ok to live and love again. When we brought Penny home, Lucy was very sick, living only 7 more weeks. It was emotionally difficult losing and mourning Lucy while having a strange new dog in the house. I struggled with moving on at first, but it didn’t take long for Penny to open our hearts. Penny became my “ride or die” gal, my best friend and inspiration. She’ll always live in my heart.

Adoption Story: We brought Neno home on 3/26/16. My husband saw Neno in a Facebook plea for dogs at Baltimore’s BARCS shelter and immediately fell in love. We arranged for a meet & greet a few days later, and Neno came home with us that day. It took several weeks though, before we met the “real” Neno. (His name is pronounced as if it was Nino.)

All we know about his past is that Animal Control removed him from a bad situation. He was a very shut-down and fearful guy at first. Any household noise – dishwasher, washing machine, furnace kicking on – would cause him to “pancake” and hit the ground. It took months before he would walk all the way across the kitchen floor. We are proud of the progress our boy has made so far, but there's still more work to do.

Current Age: approx. 10 years old

Likes:  Walks! My husband, Tim. Loved his Penny-girl! Chewing his ball. Laying in the yard chewing his ball. Laying in bed chewing his ball. Oh, and chewing his ball. He makes up games for himself where the ball is hiding in a blanket and he has to find it. Exploring the backyard. Chasing squirrels. Laying in the sunshine by the front door while watching the world go by. Running 100 mph everywhere in his younger days.

Dislikes/Fears: Car rides or leaving the house for any reason. He’s also not thrilled about any new person coming to the house. Loud, new or unusual noises or objects. The world is a scary place to Neno.

Best Trick: High 5. Neno also assigned himself the job of waking up Tim every morning (and me on the weekends).

Health/Behavior Issues: Neno had a penchant for eating objects when he was younger and he’s always had a sensitive stomach. When we adopted him, unbeknownst to us, he came with numerous pieces of a steel-belted radial car tire and a plastic object in his stomach. He had surgery to remove these objects in June 2016.  Then he had a 2nd surgery to remove pieces of a rubber toy in December 2017.

Neno is also the most anxious & fearful dog we've had and we’re always experimenting with different ways to help him feel more secure in the world. As he’s getting older, Neno has developed some arthritis issues.

Lessons Taught to His Humans: There is nothing more special than earning the trust of a dog. Patience. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to dogs. Slow improvement is better than no improvement. Covered trash cans are a blessing.

Adoption Story: Nessie joined our family on 11/24/23. After mourning the loss of Penny, we had spent months wondering if it was time to adopt another family member. When I kept running into Nessie’s foster mom at various events around Baltimore, we took that as a sign that we needed to meet this dog. After a couple on-leash meet & greets, we decided to welcome Nessie to our family.

Current Age: Approximately 2 years old. Nessie entered a local shelter as a stray in June 2023. In September 2023, she was pulled by a rescue into a foster home. So we don’t know too much about her age or background.

Likes: Car rides. Attention and snuggles. Chasing rabbits and squirrels. Patrolling the backyard. Learning nose work.

Dislikes/Fears: Motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, etc. Having her feet touched - which makes nail trims nearly impossible. We’re working on learning cooperative care. Nessie also resource guards her space from Neno, which means we’re living the Gate/Crate & Rotate life.

Best Trick: Nessie loves to learn! She has the most rock solid “stay” of any of our dogs. You can leave her unattended in a room while you do something else, and she won’t move until she’s released.

Health/Behavior Issues: Nessie’s had red & itchy feet since we adopted her so that’s been a work in progress. Her prey drive is also way more intense than any dog we’ve ever seen. Nessie has us brushing up on all our training skills and being open to learning new skills.

Lessons Taught to Her Humans: Insist on seeing a dog’s off-leash behavior before you adopt them. How to properly do Gate/Crate & Rotate to keep everyone safe. Asking for help is ok. Dogs living in the same house don’t have to be best friends. Check the hidden parts of your fence for holes chewed by rabbits.