Pet week: Penny the Companion

(Somehow, the Dog just grew into adulthood overnight. Haha!)
Well... actually, not long after moderately successful potty training, Mr. G's travels resumed and I was left with the Dog. We made good friends, so much so that the Mister often complained that the Dog is more mine than his. I guess I was there through most of her formative years (or months). Lucky me!
For I also got to deal with her 'formative' issues.

Penny, you see, seemed to have an issue with being blonde.

Penny is a Golden Retriever, and was a pretty active puppy. So... we try to understand and be properly accommodating. After completing all her shots, we started with the yard under the apartment building, and moved on to larger grounds around the complex.
Unfortunately, the yard under the apartment has this area where collected rain water created a small puddle in the corner instead of going all straight into the drainage. That area became a favorite for the Dog. Happy like a pig in mud, we would often find ourselves going down with a golden puppy, and back up with .... half golden (top) half muddy brown puppy.

As for the picture above, we scouted around and found this empty land where the Dog can run around without her leash. The shape of the lot was such that the entry is small so that we can (relatively) easily kept the Dog from running out of the area.
Unfortunately, at the far end, there was uncovered drainage. And of course the land being empty, the drainage collected all kinds of debris unchecked, providing the Dog with a perfect dyeing wading area with the result of a very happy and black(!) dog.

I am thinking that the apartment cleaner might have wondered about the dirt marks on the wall of the staircase. Ahem... yeah, sorry, that was us.
Shortly after, we found yet another empty land nearby, but with a clean water channel running through. So... after getting dirty in the first empty lot, we'll take the Dog to the second lot and she would emerge slightly cleaner. Like this:

Oh the joys of owning a dog! From the good, the bad, the expenses, the headaches...
But we love the Dog. Really.
Especially when the Mister is away, it was great to come home to have still somebody else waiting for you, even if they have four legs instead of two.
The Dog kept me sane, kept me moving.
I personally attributed many things about my first pregnancy having gone oh so swimmingly to this Dog.
The many long walks, for my easy delivery process, my reasonable weight gain, not to mention a pretty manageable moodswings. And of course, there is always the adoring company.

(We'll keep it short for today, but stay tune for the next installment: Penny the Jet Setter)