Room to Grow

Time, like a puppy, is a funny thing. Time does funny things to puppies and puppies do funny things to time. Penny’s only been home with us for two months – no time at all – but already I have a tough time remembering what life was like with just one dog. And as is the case with all puppies, Penny grows at a prodigious rate which seems to defy all natural law. As always, I have a theory. Backed by zero science. About how that growth happens.

Here’s Penny shortly before she came home. By my estimate, at birth Penny already had about 90% of the total skin she’ll ever have

With each romp all the skin gets thrown forward

And then thrown all the way back again. Therefore, my research suggests puppies grow by virtue of shaking their bodies back and forth in order to expand

Penny’s already wiggled herself to double her original size, but by the looks of it she shows no signs of slowing down.

Plenty of room to fill out

Ok, so maybe my theory is not the best. But I guess Penny ends up weighing around 70 pounds as an adult. Eko is around 90 pounds, for reference. He, like Penny, was a wrinkly bundle of extra skin.

I know paws are a favorite indicator of many people, but does anyone have any other tips for what to look for when estimating how much a pup will grow? I’d be interested to know if there are any signs I should look for with Penny.