Pet's Age
14.5 years

City
Lowell

State
Massachusetts

Pet's Story
About 14 and a half years ago an abandoned tiny 4.6 pound puppy made his way in a van from Missouri to Massachusetts as part of a rescue effort to get abandoned puppies adopted. We had found him on line on petfinder.com and had been following his progress with his foster parents who called him Peanut. They were concerned because he was not eating. It turns out that he had been struggling because he was too young to be away from his mother. Fortunately, his foster family was fostering another dog who had recently had puppies. Because of the generosity of this sweet mama dog, Peanut was able to join in with her puppies and began to thrive.

When my daughter and I went to pick him up, we saw a bunch of puppies playing outside the van in the grass. We asked one of the volunteers if one of them was our Peanut, and they said that Peanut was still in the van. When they brought him out, we nearly died from cuteness. While now healthy, he was a fraction of the size of the other puppies we saw frolicking in the grass. We brought him home and named him Pippin. When we took our tiny puppy to the vet for the first time to make sure all was well, the vet told us that he is probably a Lab/dachshund mix! The vet also said that Pippin would likely grow to be only 20 pounds. Well here we are more than 14 years later, and our Pippin is 50 pounds! Despite the fact that he is bigger than we thought he would be, he is perfect for us.

Over the years he has gone with us everywhere, hiking in New Hampshire, the beach on Cape Cod, even a few days in New York City. He's been a great brother to a human girl, two cats, a bunny, and another dog. Unfortunately, in the fall of 2023, our second dog, Yogi, suffered from a neurological illness and crossed the rainbow bridge. Pippin was so distraught, he ate part of a rug. His colon was punctured and he had to have life saving surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery did not go well and he needed a second surgery. We were told that he might not survive the second surgery. We promised him treats and more trips to the beach if he would fight to survive. I am very grateful to say that he did survive that surgery and we have had 2 additional years and counting with him that we like to call gravy.

Pippin is now a sweet little old man. Instead of being all black, he now has salt and pepper on his face and paws. He continues to love his walks and trips to the beach. We give him all the love and all of the treats he could want, because as I said now we're living in gravy.

Pet's Best Personality Trait
Tap dancing when you rub his bum

Pet's Favorite Thing To Do
Eat treats