I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to say goodbye to a
pet. I had no idea it would be this difficult. Penny Lane was one of those dogs that it was
impossible to not fall in love with instantly. Her resting face was hands-down the loneliest-looking
face you’ve ever seen on a dog. I don’t know how
many people upon meeting her, would look to me and say, “Chris, she looks so
sad.” It practically compelled anyone to
immediately hug her at first glance! This goes back to when she was just a puppy…and being a college
senior back then, I can’t tell you how advantageous a sad-looking puppy-dog was to
my social life!!!
But Penny Lane, obviously, was way more than such
trivialities. She was the greatest dog
companion a self-consumed college boy could’ve ever stumbled into.
Penny Lane actually found me the
week after July 4th, 2005. I
was playing a round of golf with my roommate and some buddies when she came crawling
out of the woods on hole 8 looking absolutely pitiful – maybe 6 weeks old at
most, she limped around, unable to walk on her right front leg, and the poor thing
was being consumed by the ticks crawling all over her body. Still, she came out with her tiny little
puppy-tail just wagging…as if she just knew that among us guys, one of us was destined
to take her home.
My roommate & I decided we’d bring her back to our place,
clean her up, and take her to the Humane Society. After cleaning her up though, and after painstakingly
tweezer-ing all those nasty ticks off, we realized Penny Lane had reeled
us in just as effectively as she would everybody else that would meet her. “Ahhh, what the hell?” we said, and blindly decided to keep her, not
considering such things as how a couple of broke college guys were going to pay
for her, or more importantly, who would ultimately be her owner. Who cares!!
We were dog owners!
Penny Lane’s magnetism was so great she could even attract an avowed non-dog person to become attached to her. I'm sure Angela will protest that she was never a non-dog person, but I question if there’s anyone else who’d agree. Angela never had a dog growing up and never wanted one. When we were dating, she wasn’t swayed by Penny Lane’s Jedi mind tricks. Her sad-dog resting-face had no bearing on Angela, and when we moved in together in Chicago, and got Penny Lane back from my sister, Angela told me point blank, “I’ll give it a month before we give her back to your sister (who would’ve been all-too-happy to take her!)”. Fast-forward one month, and Angela not only turned into Penny Lane’s biggest champion, but had PL size me up, and tricked my dog into thinking I wasn’t the alpha male in the house! Angela was her master now, and I had been demoted to second-in-command, to be obeyed only when it didn’t conflict with any orders coming from the new boss lady. Penny Lane followed Angela around EVERYWHERE, and really, is there anybody in the world who can resist such loyalty in a faithful companion? Angela fell in love with my Penny Lane, who was now our Penny Lane. And the rest, so they say, is history.
Penny Lane was witness to such a transformative period of my life and Angela’s. My story of Ole Miss and the story of our time in Chicago cannot be told without her – from the walks in the park to the doggy dates on Montrose Beach, to the all-of-a-sudden racist dog who, during our walks would instinctively give a sinister growl whenever she crossed paths with black people...and only black people (It wasn't our fault, promise! I guess you could take the dog out of Mississippi…) - every moment, it was a privilege. Honestly there was scarcely a day that went by that I didn’t gloat to Angela about how Penny Lane was, objectively speaking, the greatest dog on the planet. Trust me…Angela can vouch, she quickly became annoyed at the repetition in how often I’d say it! We were lucky to have her, and we both knew it…every day. I feel blessed to be able to say she was ours.
When Hudson was born, and then later Adley, she would sleep next to their cribs, as if protecting them. They ADORED Penny Lane. Hudson loved to take her on walks with Daddy and hold her leash, and one of the indelible images that'll be forever etched in my mind is Adley giving Penny Lane one of her big Adley bear hugs. She loved doing it, and it was super cute, but poor Penny Lane. She most assuredly received zero pleasure having it done to her, but she gladly let Adley do it anyway...and never once complained with a growl. That was Penny Lane.
Now the simple thought that the two of us are forever parted, and that we shall kiss your face no more, seems to me, even now, utterly inconceivable. We are all crushed by the pain of your absence. And while it’s very easy to say you’re in a better place, I would personally just like to be selfish enough to say I wish you were still here, with us.
Thank you Penny Lane for all the love you gave – I just hope we were able to give even a fraction of it back. We miss you so profoundly, and will never forget you. We love you Penny Lane, now and forever.
Love,
Chris, Angela, Hudson, Adley, Lolly, Pop, Shannon, Andrew, Anderson, Claire, Mr. Jack & Annabelle.
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