We adopted Cookie on the day of New Year's Eve 2005. She was apx 9 mos old at the time. Cookie had been rescued, adopted once and returned, and had been at PWPC long enough to become well known to the staff. I was there because my wife had 'given' me a dog for Christmas. She had actually only given me the idea of a dog, the actual specimen had yet to be determined. Not that she didn't try. She and a friend of hers had tried to adopt a dog the day before Christmas and it didn't work out. That's how she ended up at PWPC in the first place, trying to score a pooch to put under the tree. My wife had never owned a dog and was not at all sure about becoming an owner then. But we made a deal a few years ago and my part of the negotiations included a dog. We envisioned getting a chocolate Lab and naming it Brownie after my wife's favorite dessert, thinking that would make it easier for her to accept the dog.

She had visited PWPC and left with a small, quiet, brown dog named Bailey in mind as a candidate. Alas, when I got there after Christmas to meet Bailey, she was already spoken for. The woman working there (Erin?) invited me to fill out an application to have on file in case a dog I wanted came in. While I was waiting, a puppy in the cage to my left stuck her nose through the top of the cage, stuck her paw out to me and started 'talking' to me, begging to get my attention. She appeared slightly too big and waaay too needy to fit my wife's expectations. I thought there was no way I was going to persuade my wife to take her. Somehow Cookie convinced me to take her for a walk. She was perfectly well behaved. And even better, her name, Cookie, came close to the name Brownie that we had already decided upon. I filled out the application and left feeling somewhat doubtful but optimistic. PWPC called a day or two later to approve my application and my wife went with me to meet Cookie. We went fairly early in the day and Cookie was pretty reserved with us, which was good because my wife believed that to be her true demeanor. What we later learned is that Cookie is just not a 'morning dog' and gets plenty of energy later in the day, after she has had chance to sleep in! Cookie now enjoys a large fenced yard in German Village, daily trips to Schiller Park to run like crazy, romp with other dogs, chase squirrels, and splash in the pond. In addition she gets nightly walks around German Village to inspect the neighborhood. I work at home and she spends all day with me, and has become a mascot for the Bed & Breakfast we own in German Village, meeting and greeting guests and begging for belly rubs. Today at just a couple months past her 2nd birthday she is very loved, spoiled, fit, healthy and happy! My wife says all the time that she can't believe that she has become such a dog person and that she never could have imagined how much she would love Cookie.

Thanks PWPC!

John Pribble and Darci Congrove
Columbus