Gloria and Steve Hammel talk about their best friends Butterscotch, a 3-month-old poodle, Penny, a 13-year-old papillon and Jake, a 13-year-old bichon frise.
The couple got Penny as a puppy from a pet store in Janesville. When their English bulldog died, Gloria said Penny was “lost.” Eventually, they came across Jake through a friend of a friend. Now, with both Penny and Jake getting older they decided they wanted a puppy and got Butterscotch from an Amish farm in Platteville. “We just enjoy the dogs a lot,” Steve said. “They bring us a lot of happiness.”
Best Friends is a weekly feature designed to highlight a local resident and his or her pets. To suggest someone for the series, contact Marissa Weiher, photographer, at photo@themonroetimes.com.
Describe Butterscotch, Penny and Jake’s personalities.
Butterscotch, we have to give her toys to play with because she wants to chew on everything, which is normal because she’s teething. She’s a little rambunctious thing. She’ll just run around the house. She’s really smart.
Penny, I got her because I wanted her. I wanted a dog with those butterfly ears not knowing there are two kinds. My son got the one with the butterfly ears; I got the one that doesn’t have them. She’s real mellow. She likes to cuddle. She’s really laid-back. They’re getting older now, but even when she was younger she wasn’t wild like this one is (pointing at Butterscotch).
Jake just growls at Butterscotch all the time. He doesn’t want her to mess with him. You know, he’s the boss. It’s so cute though. She’ll go up to him and sit and just stare at him and whenever he gets up she’ll go and sit where he was sitting and then he’ll come back and be like “grrr”. All he does is eat and sleep. They said bichons constantly want to eat and with this one he’s always as his dog dish. He would eat everybody’s food if we let him. He just eats, sleeps and poops.
What do you like to do together?
Steve walks them every morning and every night. We have taken them places with us but not too much in the summer because I can’t see taking a dog on a hot day. Otherwise they’re with us most of the time.
What has it been like having Butterscotch, Penny and Jake in your lives?
We’ve always had a dog. I could not live without a dog. It’s just one of those things. You pet it, you calm down. It never talks back — it shows unconditional love.
