dawg

My brother David is married but has no kids. I think he's waging some sort of campaign to prevent me from becoming an uncle. As a result, he doesn't bore me with an endless avalanche of kid photos; all he's got is his faithful dog Penny, whom I blogged about before. Here's a particularly cute shot:

Penny is a mix of Border Collie and boxer. Apparently, she's gotten a bit aggressive as she's matured, so David advises his guests not to look her in the eyes for the first fifteen minutes of their visit, otherwise she might challenge the guest and possibly bite him or her. I wonder whether Penny remembers me and my smell; I haven't seen her since she was much smaller. I wonder if, failing to remember my smell, she might sense the fraternal connection between me and David. It didn't work for my brother Sean, who almost got bitten at one point. That's all been smoothed out now, according to David; Sean and Penny have had no more problems, not since adopting the "no eye-contact" strategy.

Penny is undeniably cute, and I personally never saw her act aggressively—except once, and at that moment, she was obviously being playful. Penny plays rough, according to David. Sean has brought his tiny chihuahua, Maqz, over a couple times, and I suspect Maqz is a bit afraid of Penny. Despite being much younger, Penny is about three times Maqz's size.

She strikes me as a "people" dog. I can imagine Penny howling along with the partiers during David's frequent barbecues. There was a BBQ during the World Cup; I heard that Penny behaved herself just fine. It's actually hard to imagine her being anything but nice and gentle and playful; I never really saw her acting otherwise.

I kinda' miss her.


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