Mourning a good life

Lu is gone. She had some sort of seizure/heart incident last night just after midnight. She did actually revive herself after not breathing for about a minute, but she struggled through the rest of the night with coughing fits every few hours . We brought her to the vets this morning and had her euthanized. As difficult as it was, it was the right thing to do.

We never wanted Lu. We acquired her as an adult on Mister C's 30th birthday. My in laws brought her down with them from Fargo when they came to the party. They had had her for about three weeks. My mother in law bred toy poodles. Toy poodles prance gently through the house. Lu bolted through the house without much direction or thought to what might be in her way. She was way too much for them. When they packed up their car to leave our place after the party, they packed their bags. They packed their toy poodles. But they neglected to pack up Lu. When we offered to get her, they said they didn't want her. And so a crazy dalmatian was added to our household. We already had an adolescent lab mix that weighed about 95 pounds and was sadly lacking in common sense. She couldn't be that much worse, right?.

Lu had no house manners. She got on all the furniture. She tipped over the garbage and ate whatever she found until we broke down and bought a can with a lid. She surfed the counters and ate anything within reach. And it was amazing what she could reach. She ate raw sweet potatoes (plural) once and produced orange droppings for several days. She ate a sponge mop one time. It was new and in a grocery sack so I guess it could have been mistaken for food. All in all, she was the worst mannered dog I have ever owned. But we decided to keep her anyway. She had already lived in four different homes by the time we got her. We just couldn't see re-homing her again. She really was a sweet dog. And besides, at 38 pounds, she could consistently knock over our lab by running straight at him. He never did figure out how to dodge her. She ruled the roost. And she eventually settled down.

By the time Master J was born, Lu at least had some manners. But it was when he was born that she really came into her own. She adored him. I used to have to shoo her out of the way just so I could periodically have a picture of Master J that didn't have her in it. She put up with him rolling on top her or using her to help pull himself up. If I didn't close his door at night, I would find her sleeping next to his crib. Of course, at dinner time she was planted right next to him. She wore antlers at Christmas and dressed up as a fire dog all four years that he was a fireman at Halloween. She loved all kids, but especially Master J. For a dog that nobody seemed to want, she was probably the best dog I've ever had. And it sucks that she's gone.