Lucy
On January 20, my sweet little girl Lucy Lou passed away in my arms. There are no words to describe the loss and emptiness that I feel. Lucy was such a little spit fire. She was a terrified little girl when she came to live with me and she had come so far. I loved her little tongue hanging down, it made her personality. I always knew when she was upset with me because that little tongue would really hang down. As she got used to her new home she became very determined that she owned her new home and all the property around it. She would even chase birds away. She would always follow me around the house and I used to say to her “Lucy Lou, Mama is going to trip over you if you are not careful”. She would never walk ahead of me, it was always behind me so she could make sure I was right there.
Lucy would not go out to pee without me going with her. Look out if she lost sight of me. She would run right through the house barking in a panic looking for me and she would be so upset that even if I came out of the room I was in and spoke to her she would pass by me not seeing me because of being so frantic and scared that I had left her. No one could close a door in this home; if they did she would scratch and bark like crazy until you opened it. So no one got to use the washrooms without her sitting and looking straight at you. When I took her for grooming she would come out and jump up until her face was in my neck crying as if she had been tortured.
When my Bestie, Jaime, would visit Lucy would go under my chair on the deck and her eyes never stopped looking at Jaime. She was defending her territory and telling her via the look “Hurry up and get out of here”. If I put her in the house she would stand at the glass door and bark like crazy with her little tongue just hanging down. It didn’t matter how many times Jaime came, she was not happy. On one occasion, when Jaime went inside to use the washroom and Lucy was under my chair, Lucy scratched like crazy to get in the house to find Jaime and growled at the door until Jaime left the house. The last trip Jaime made Lucy started under my chair and ended up creeping under the side table and the chair Jaime was sitting in and just staring at her basically telling her “OK your time is up. GET OUT.”
Tanya, who brought her to me through ElderDog, came for a visit and Lucy was not happy. She never took her eyes off her and, when she left, Lucy sat at the edge of the deck watching to make sure she got in her car and left. Tanya came back on the lawn to take a picture and that was it. Lucy was mad and wanted her gone.
Lucy was the love of my life, my sweet little girl who kept me on my feet. She filled my heart every minute of the day and at bedtime I would put her up on my bed and we would snuggle for a while and then she would find a spot that she could lay half on me and half on the bed so she would wake up if I got up. We snuggled every morning when we woke up and a lot through the day. She loved sleeping with her face on my shoulder for hours. She loved my bestie, Anne, who would come every Monday for the day. And she also made sure she kept her eye on her even though she loved her. I will never forget the look she gave me when she was upset with me and could not get her way. She would turn her back to me and every few seconds look back to see if I was paying attention and knew that she was upset with me.
Sweet little Lucy Lou with the biggest personality of any dog I have ever had. I am broken and lost without her. There will always be a place in my heart for Lucy, Finnigan and Malcom–y babies who gave me unconditional love and protection.