This week was a hard week, our family had to say goodbye to a special dog.

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Published September 27, 2024
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Goodbyes are not fun

In August this year, our dog, Lucy, started to have some health issues. She has been in our family since 2014 when I rescued her from a bridge in our hometown. The night was cold, around -23 degrees Fahrenheit, and she was running towards me. I stopped my car, and she ran under it, most likely because it was warm.

I had stopped at Kwik Trip, a gas station in the Midwest, to fill up went inside to grab a snack. It was late and I was snackish. I grabbed two pumpkin bars and headed home.

One of those pumpkin bars help me to lure the dog out from under the car and into a warm blanket. A woman stopped with me, and she had a blanket in her trunk. Soon, a police officer came to gather the dog and take her to the station to check for a microchip. There were no reports of a lost or missing dog, she had no microchip, and the officer said we could release her to the humane society or agree to foster her for a time until her owner could be found.

Needless to say, no owner was found.

Two days later, my husband agreed to let us adopt the dog and we called her Lucy.

She immediately fit in and was a great addition to our family, despite having some oddities.

Lucy, we figured, had been abused by a man at one point. We figured this must be the case because she only barked at men when they came over, stood up or walked around our house. Lucy soon alienated all our guy friends. They no longer wanted to come to the house.

Lucy was attached to me. Quite literally. Everywhere I went, she followed me. When I was pregnant, she found any way to climb up on top of me and snuggle. There were times she sat on top of my stomach, literally on top of our babies. Crazy dog!

She loved fleece blankets, baby carrots, chasing flies in the house, looking out the window at the squirrels, and barking. Lucy loved to bark. She barked at kids, our kids, men, squirrels, other dogs, the window, and even leaves falling from the trees.

Lucy, recently, had been having some health issues and we were always agreeable that we would not spend a fortune to keep her alive at the expense of our finances. She is a beloved part of our family, but we could not afford the high cost of trying to keep her alive. Yearly checkups, vaccines, registrations and health checks to make sure she is good were always part of the deal. We just were not under the idea that we would ever spend money doing exorbitant measures to keep her alive.

This week, that came to fruition.

Lucy has had incontinence issues that resulted in a bigger health and sanitary issue for our house, and we had to make the tough decision to say goodbye. She was in pain, having issues controlling her outside issues, and started to not eat and drink. She was telling us that she was in pain.

Yesterday, we had our last day with Lucy. She has been a loving dog, great cuddler and fantastic sleeper.

After 11 years as a fluffy member of our family, Lucy went over the rainbow doggy bridge and joined all the other beloved pets. She will be missed, and we loved her so.

No longer will Lucy bark at everyone who comes in our house. Not sure if I will miss that or really be excited to not have to explain to visitors that the dog really doesn’t hate you, she just barked at everyone.

I know my parents will miss Lucy the most. My father was her favorite. If we were ranked, it would my grandpa, Monica, Matthew, Levi, Elliana, Tyler, grandma, and then everyone else. Sam wasn’t on the list because he didn’t tolerate her in the last few years, and she stayed away from him. They had an understanding.

Lucy loved going up north to our cabin. “Up nort” was her favorite place to be. Just two summers ago, she realized that she LOVED swimming and would spend hours swimming in the lake. Or boat rides, Lucy loved boat rides.

Her favorite food was carrots that Matthew gave her daily. Instead of the traditional baked dog treats, Lucy LOVED to be given a carrot for a treat.

Lucy, you will be missed.
~Monica

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