Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Introduction

The ever-classy Duchess

Siena's tough, but she's a lover.

Meet Stinks and Siena. Stinks, (as I nicknamed her because she always seems to have a lovely, ah-hem, stench, despite her stately attitudes) is our family's first dog. She came into our lives as a tiny puppy the neighbors couldn't handle and she was just the best first dog. She knows commands, she has personality, and she can tell the difference between "talk" and "speak." Her actual name is Duchess, but she answers to Puppy Girl, Il Duce, Stinky...Duchess is over 10 years old and adjusting nicely to being a big sister to my little sister's first human baby. Duchess is definitely the queen fur baby. Siena is our family's second dog. She came to us as a pit rescue who stole our hearts. She's the perfect brown of the sun-drenched bricks in Siena, Italy...and is a constant companion to my mom. She can climb trees and fences and she loves to roll in freshly-shampoo'd hair and dryer sheets. 

Same brindle coat, adorable mug.

About a year after our family rescued Siena and one of her pups...another rescue dog found us. She looked like Pete the Pup from the Lil Rascals and was all skin and bones. She made it a habit to jump into our cars (my sister, my brother, me) when we were leaving for work-- just to say good morning. 

Petey Bella's storybook Doppelgangar

We loved the cottage with scary heater

 We fell in love with her big, round, brown eyes. Pete the Pup was named Petey, but we didn't want her to have gender issues, so my aunt Janet called her Petey Bella. She gets called Pete, Petes, Petey Pants,  Pokey Big Puppy (because she's 65 pounds, but looks like the Little Golden Book Poky Little Puppy), Bella Boo...she had a prescription filled at a CVS of all places and when the pharmacy tech asked for her last name or ID, I was stumped.



The conversation with the pharmacy tech went something like, "Please confirm the patient's full name."
Me: "Pants? Her name is Petey Pants I think."
Pharmacist: "You don't know this patient's last name? Where's the ID?"
Me: "Um, she doesn't have her driver's license yet because none of her four feet can reach the pedals."
--stank eye from employee--
Me: "She's my dog. You're filling a prescription from a vet, not a doctor."
Pharmacist: "So we put the last name as dog."

Whoa-kay there.

Preppy Pete is ready to hang with the Denver hipsters

So we've had her since 2006, and she was probably a year old then. She had been bred and starved, so she was skin and bones, but had fetuses in her. Once she started to gain weight, she miscarried the pups, which made it easier to keep her because we didn't have to find families to adopt lots of puppies. I will never, ever understand why people want to make money off of animals and do so by hurting and starving them, but I am incredibly grateful that the people who did this to my Petey Bella did it nearby so she could find me to come live with. She's a really awesome dog. 

Oh hai! You're home! Been missin' you allllll the day!

Petey's always got head hugs for her momma