Penny
I have known I wanted a vizsla since I was in my early 20s when a sugar faced elderly lady put her head on my knee in a dog park in NYC. A decade later, after a lot more research on the breed, a move home to New Hampshire, and finally becoming homeowners, my partner Andy & I put in an application with the Vizsla Rescue of Central New England. We thought we would be waiting a year or more, but later that afternoon we were on the phone with Stephanie of the Vizsla Rescue of Long Island & we brought Penny home from upstate New York about a week after that.
We love Penny (or Penelope when she is being a chaos goblin) so much already. She is a shy, scaredy lady who is blossoming into the sweetest, silliest lapdog as she gets to know and trust us. The first week was really hard and we called Stephanie probably at least 1,000 times. Penny cried and hyperventilated much of the 8 hour drive home, stress teeth ground on and ate her bed/blankets, and was showing a little too much interest in our geriatric cat Cleo. In addition, Penny is scared of having her head, neck, or paws touched, hesitant of people, has mixed feelings about other dogs, and absolutely terrified of the vet.
We are still working through a lot of these struggles with Penny, but she is making so much progress! We are now able to give her all the head pets ahd take on/off her leash and coats. She's constantly in my lap, begging Andy for belly rubs, and has even bravely snuggled with my dad & a few friends of ours. She's played nicely with two different dogs and more and more neutral towards Cleo. Penny even stopped by our vet for treats! Her one true love is ball and it's a joy to see her excitement to see us (the ball throwers) when we get home.
Penny is a little mad at us in the mornings for the cold, snow, and dark, but we are excited to adventure with her more and more as the weather warms and days last longer. Our town has over 50 miles of hiking trails and we live an hour from the White Mountains and even closer to a number of the state parks, so we are excited for her to join me on long hikes and Andy at the crag (probably stealing his crash pad for a dog bed) this spring. She's fitting seamlessly into our life and we're excited to continue on this journey with her.
A huge thank you to Stephanie & the Vizsla Rescue Program of Long Island for connecting us and your support throughout the process.
Elyse and Andy