Penny’s Family
From Almost Death to my Forever Home
Hi, my name is Penny, I hope you remember me. My sister and I were strays together until we wound up at the Downey shelter, boy that sure can be a scary place. I was hoping that I would not die in there. Lucky for me, one day a kind gentleman came to look at me and I just knew that he wanted to take me home! Soon after I met that gentleman I was taken to the shelter clinic and spayed. When I was all done I met a nice lady who picked me up to take me home. I was a little confused because I thought the kind gentleman, whose name I later learned is Tom, was going to be taking me home. As it turns out, Tom showed up at the shelter not long after I had been picked up and was surprised to find that I was already gone! There had been a mix up and I had been picked up by the wrong rescue, I must be one very lucky Penny to have so many people wanting me. Well my new foster dad, Tom, was upset and insisted that I be brought back so that he could take me home with him where I was supposed to be. The nice lady who had taken me by mistake brought me back right away, and it didn’t take too much longer for my foster dad and I to be reunited back at the shelter. In fact we arrived at the exact same time! I was so happy to see him and once I was loaded up in his car the two of us were ready to tackle rush hour traffic and finally go home.
When I arrived at my new home I still did not feel very well from my surgery, and although I got to meet all the dogs who live with my foster dad, I decided to just stay in my crate. The next morning Tom came to check on me and noticed that I still did not feel my best, so he made an appointment and took me to the vet. Lucky for me (again) that my foster dad was so attentive and knew something was very wrong. The vet discovered I had a fever of 104.6 and by then I was refusing to eat or drink anything. Since I had come from the shelter Tom advised that I should start fluids and antibiotics to break the fever. For days I went back and forth to the vet, and then it was confirmed I had something called aspiration pneumonia and needed to be nebulized twice daily. My foster dad promised me he would have me back in shape in no time and just a few weeks later I was feeling like a brand new dog!
Once I was healthy, my foster dad told me that I was ready to be available for adoption. We did a photo shoot and my bio was put up online. Well, I must have been the cutest German Shepherd ever because there were already some families interested in adopting me! I even had a meet and greet where I met a nice family, but they decided it was not time for them to adopt yet. Shortly after that meet and greet Tom spoke with a family over the phone and I heard him mention “Penny might be a good fit for you”. Oh boy, was I excited! The family Tom had talked to were actually clients of his, whose puppy he was helping train. Soon after I had another meet and greet at the family’s home; where I got to meet them and my potential new brother, his name is Max. We had a lot of fun, especially after I showed Max that I would be the boss since he was only a puppy. After a few more visits I overheard that the family wanted to do the foster-to-adopt program to make sure that everything worked out well with me and Max. That Sunday Tom and I headed over to their home with some food and dog toys to begin the foster-to-adopt program. Max and I had so much fun together and everything went so well that my new family told Tom they wanted to finalize my adoption within 7 days! The next time I saw Tom I was so excited to see him because I knew he was there to finalize my adoption. I was finally going to have a forever home! My foster dad, Tom, saved my life from the shelter and the pneumonia and I know I am the luckiest Penny around to have my found my amazing forever home, a great brother in Max, and a family that loves me just as much as I love them!