For this special spring break edition of Welcome To The Jungle, I would like to introduce the campus to my dog, Penn. Although Penn does not live in Elizabethtown, he has come to campus many times, even more times than my dad has, and he proudly represents Elizabethtown College on his collar.

The story of how my family got Penn is one I love to tell. In 2018, my brother, dad and I all were attempting to convince my mom we needed another dog. We currently had Ohio, an English Mastiff, Irish Wolfhound, Saint Bernard and Rottweiler mutt who was born in the state of Ohio. At the time, Ohio was five, and we thought he needed a friend. My mom, however, disagreed.

She finally ended up changing her mind on Sept. 15, 2018. My family was at a peanut butter festival in Red Bank, Pa., a small town on the Western side of the state, when my dad showed us some pictures of a dog he found on Facebook. Instantly, we were all enamored by the runt of the litter, a tiny brown and black Mastiff-Boxer puppy. The next day, we drove three and a half hours to York, Pa. to go get him. Like his sibling, he would end up being named after the state he was born in: Penn.

My family’s original assumption of Ohio needing someone to play with turned out to be wrong. While Penn and Ohio did occasionally engage in a game of tug of war, Ohio mostly wanted to be left alone and was constantly annoyed by Penn’s attempts to play, like any older sibling. Even so, any time Penn ended up hurting himself, Ohio was always there to comfort him. Plus, they often take naps together.

Penn eventually did get a playmate in October 2021 when my family got Kai, an English Mastiff-Great Dane mix. Although Kai is much bigger than Penn, they play constantly. Once, I caught them engaged in tug of war with a cat toy despite it being way too small for that purpose. Kai and Penn are constantly together, and it is so cute to watch them cuddle.

One of the funniest things about Penn is that he reversed Pavlov-dogged my family. On my front door, we usually have a bell decoration hanging up that corresponded to whatever holiday was next coming up. When Penn needed to be let outside, he would take his paw and hit the bell. Most of the time, nobody noticed because it was usually accompanied with a whine which was the traditional signal that a dog needed outside. However, we began noticing it when the bell would ring accidentally, and someone would get up to let the dogs out. I always thought that Penn was less intelligent because he can not give paw with both paws, but after that incident, I have looked at him differently.

For his favorite treat, Penn is quite strange; he loves ice cubes. Nobody can get an ice cube from the freezer without Penn running out and begging for one. You can toss an ice cube from six feet away, and Penn will still catch it.

Although Penn and I may have our disagreements, like when he refuses to move over on the couch, I do think that he is the one of the sweetest dogs out there. He loves meeting new people, and he absolutely loves visiting Etown.