Pippa

Meet Pippa.

She is also referred to as Pip Pip, Pipster, and the Terrorist.

For several years now, a life goal of mine has been to adopt a dog and train it as a therapy dog. Unlike service animals who help humans with physical disabilities, therapy dogs go on visits to nursing homes and hospitals in order to lift spirits and provide the unconditional love that only dogs seem know how to express so wholly. Obviously, this requires a very special dog with certain characteristics such as being laid-back, affectionate, and gentle.

When I finally reached a point in my life where I could take the time to properly train such an animal, the search was on! For months I scoured Petfinder for hours at a time, traveling to every shelter I could find, and returning multiple times. It was heart wrenching work and downright depressing at times. To see firsthand how cruel humans can be to their pets was sickening.

There were many dogs I fell in love with over the months. But they'd either be adopted or have some fatal character flaw that would mean they weren't good candidates as therapy dogs. And I was being picky! Training up a therapy dog is hard enough as it is, I would need as much of a head start as I could get by choosing the right temperament.

As I was starting to burn out from my search, and contemplating calling it quits for awhile, I saw the profile page for Judith. Those big black soulful eyes pulled me in and wouldn't let go. From her description, she seemed to good to be true and so a few days later, with the rest of the pack in tow, I drove several hours to go meet her.

She seemed to good to be true, climbing into my lap as soon as I met her. She was shy at first, but was trusting enough to fall asleep in my arms within thirty minutes of meeting her. My other two dogs, Oliver and Lily, didn't show any immediate objections towards her and Judith basically ignored them. It would take several days for me to figure out why.

Judith went home with me that night. As celebration (and starving having spent several hours at the shelter) we stopped for Culvers for dinner and the three dogs shared a meal. It was the first time I noticed something odd about the newest member of the family. While Oliver and Lily chowed down on their fries, Judith was slow to take them until it was directly in front of her nose. Odd manners for a shelter dog but I brushed it off and spent the rest of the car ride cuddling my new dog.

It took several days to decide on a new name since Judith just wasn't cutting it. Her personality was still very timid and slow, but as the days progressed and she became more familiar with the family, the bouncy puppy energy began to emerge. It needed to be something upbeat and preferably with British origin. Pippa it was.