I Loved Lucy

As I've said before, the hardest thing about being a dog lover is that our wonderful four legged friends age so much more quickly than we do, and leave us so much sooner than we'd like.

Lucy came to us as a 13 week old puppy...she was at a Petcetera branch of the SPCA in Richmond...crated and forlorn.  Mike and Jen spotted her, and rather easily convinced me that she needed to belong with us.  She was called Molasses...a truly terrible name.  She was immediately renamed Lucy.  She was quite frail and weak from being caged for several weeks, and on her first several outings had to be carried most of the time.  .  

 She became fast friends with her older "brother" Gillis.  Lucy suffered separation anxiety as a young dog, and vented her anxiety by destroying things...clothing, eyeglasses, carpets, walls, furniture...I had doubts that she would survive past her second birthday at that time.

 She matured into a wonderful companion, a chaser of balls, a fearless swimmer in oceans, lakes and rivers (but remained terrified of children's wading pools and having baths forever!), and a wonderful caring, empathic friend who could detect sadness a mile away and come to comfort whoever was feeling down.

Lucy never had pups of her own, but mothered any baby animals brought into our family...first Jasper, then Molly the cat, and finally Cody Amos.  She spent two years despising Rudy when he arrived as an adult of the same age, but eventually she accepted him too.

 

Lucy had severe hip dysplasia in her later years, and in July we learned that she had a large tumour on her spleen.  On July 21, we said a very sad farewell to our beautiful, beautiful Lucy.

Lucy

April 8, 2000-July 21, 2011