Knowing When To Let Go

This is to all my faithful readers. I’m sure you have followed my many puppy sagas. The death, the loss, the arrivals and the moving of puppies. Whenever anyone meets Star, the new puppy, they say, oh you have replaced Lucy with Star. Alright, back up, back up. Now, I am setting the record straight once and for all. 

I love Lucy, I have always loved Lucy. I have always put my dogs needs- financially and emotionally above my own. 

Lucy was rescued by me as you know.

But she also spent time such as weekends, sleep overs with my BFF Ming, her husband Mark, Sammy Diva and Mochi. Lucy was part of their extended family. But not for Mark. For Mark, this was his little girl. Because he spent a lot of time during the rescue process with her. He took care of her when she was a puppy. He became very attached to her. Ming had Sammy Diva before they were married and they had a very close bond. Mochi seemed to love everyone, you know cats, they do what they need to survive. The one thing Ming and I both noticed was this amazing thing that Lucy did. She had two routines in two different houses which included her eating habits, her walking habits even sleeping habits. The moment she walked in the Brown house, she knew what routine she would be in. At my house, she lived another. What a smart dog, we had never seen this. This must be because she is a rescue dog. 

After Ry’s passing I noticed a decline in Lucy’s behavior. She played a little with KC but didn’t come out of her shell much. Again, down the street (which is only a few doors down) she goes. She seems to find peace there. Its a calming house. Sammy is an older Lab, spends evening time w/ Mom and Dad on the couch watching movies and drinking wine. (not the dog) Also, at night, they pull Lucy into bed since she was so small. Sammy always sleeps on her bed. Mochi also slept at the foot of the bed as well. At this time, I developed my lung condition.  Lucy sleeping in my bed exacerbated my condition. My pulmonologist said no dogs on my bed at all. Another bummer for Lucy. Now, this is a dog that I carried around, held in my arms. Lucy is not a dog-dog . Lucy is a dog-person. So her personality starts to change. Also KC is slowly coming out of his coma and looking for someone to play with. Guess who, Lucy. Lucy enjoys it somewhat. Though Lucy is a Corgi and KC is a Boxer. Imagine what that is like from Lucy’s point of view. KC would sit on Lucy, use her as a ball, drag her around by the collar to play with her. Lucy is a small Corgi. It began to take its toll on her. More nights at the Brown’s. Lucy began to snap a lot more at KC. I began to see her feeling more miserable. During reiki with Lucy, both Ming and I felt what was going on. But we had no solution at the time. Ming was pretty happy with her life, but Lucy wormed her way into Ming’s heart. Ming didn’t know she had room in her heart for one more dog. She was surprised at how attached she was becoming to Lucy. It became harder for her to just pick up Sammy Diva after work and leave Lucy behind. 

I searched my heart. I needed to do the right thing for Lucy. Not for KC or anyone else. I walked down to talk to Ming and Mark. Lucy’s well being was the most important. That was when the decision was made for Lucy to become a member of the Brown household.Well, I think her puppy prayers were answered. She is very happy. We had a great puppy shower to celebrate her move. It was a wonderful time. I don’t think anyone will ever comprehend the sacrifice of giving up someone you love because it’s better for them. 

I am lucky because I see Lucy almost every day and she spends the afternoons with me. So its not a HUGE sacrifice, so please, I never replaced Lucy. I gave Lucy the best most loving home she could have. Because I put a furbaby first. Win, win!

With age, comes wisdom

By now all of you know that I only have my sweet shy KC living at home. So we are getting a little restless at our house. Once you have had 2 dogs living together, you realize how important companionship is for a dog. So I contacted Ry’s breeder in Canada. I also looked at some other Boxer breeders. But then I remembered Oprah’s show about our responsibility to ourselves and our animals on this planet. Surfing Boxer rescue I went. I found a site called http://www.boxerocrescue.com. There she was. A little “Minnie”, her name at the moment. 12 weeks old, the prettiest female boxer I ever saw. I filled out the application, sent it off and then forgot about it. The other half of my brain is still thinking maybe I should just go with the breeder. I sit and talk to my husband. We look on line again at Minnie and read her story. Her mother Dory was about to be euthanized a couple days before she was ready to deliver her litter because she had kennel cough. Thank goodness BOCAR rescued her. Brenda Kinnie, the founder, rescued Dory and found her a foster home close to where she lived. A couple days later, Dory delivered 9 pure bred Boxer puppies. Unfortunately, 2 of them died. The other 7 were beautiful. What a fool I was all these years to have not rescued a puppy, any puppy. But for me, it was Boxers. I want to tell everyone that this is the greatest deal going. First, you get the most beautiful dog, you are saving a dog’s life, the dog is spade or neutered. Through BOCAR my dog also came with a microchip, food, toys, and complete records. When Brenda showed up with “Minnie” in her crate and 2 of her sisters I could have just screamed they were so beautiful. Each one was different, a fawn, a dark brindle and our “Minnie” Star. Brenda did a complete check of our yard and home to make sure it was adequate. We introduced sweet KC to Minnie Star.  KC seemed to get along just fine. He adapted easily.  I hated to let the other puppies go, but I do know my limits. I made a donation of $600 to BOCAR which I will be doing yearly now. I think the work Brenda and her organization does is so amazing. The reason I added “Star” is because I have a great Aunt Minnie, so just couldn’t call her Minnie. So you guessed it, she became our “Star”. Now we have KC and Star, two amazing Boxers running around. There is a difference between a rescue dog and a puppy mill dog. Star has been with us 3 days now and is open, loving, already trained to “sit”, goes out, sleeps through the night, wakes to a dry crate and plays wonderfully with her big brother. She has such a sweet nature and easy to please. It took me awhile to catch on but I will never ever go anywhere but to a Rescue. I encourage all of you if you are looking for a dog, any size, any kind. There is a rescue that has a dog, puppy, whatever you are a looking for, you will find each other and be so grateful that you did. 

The Liberation of Lucy

This story goes back to when Ry was still alive. So this is taking all of you readers backwards. This is a tender story about animals and their intuitive nature. It begins with Ry being very excited this particular morning. He is jumping and looking out our front window. Yes, he has my curiosity piqued. So I take a quick look and see my neighbor Susan with a designer leash in her hands. Attached to that pretty pink leash was a matching motif collar on the cutest little puppy I had ever seen. I quickly opened the door leaving Ry on the other side to investigate. I sound like a sleuth detective here, don’t I? This turns out to be a beautiful pembroke corgi. All fuzz and smiles, the happiest little girl I ever met. Her name was Lucy Lu. (yes, after the actress- Lucy Liu) The designer leash was Juicy Couture of course. They continued down the street as cute as could be.  On the return trip, I picked the puppy up. I could not resist. Kisses and all sweetness, what a doll. I make sure I rub the puppy all over to get her smell on me. Bye, bye and in the house I run. You can see where this going. Ry is all over me like a rash. Sniff, sniff, happy boy. I don’t see or hear anything about the puppy for a day or so. But Ry is frozen to the chair looking out the window on puppy patrol. The scene continues. Susan and Lucy walking down the street and then back in the house, once a day, 3 minutes spent at best. Now, I’m more curious since I only see this puppy once a day. I go over to her house, next door to find out what’s happening. I see the designer crate in the corner of the dining room. This is where Lucy lives 22-23 hours a day. I’m a little startled by this. The 1-2 hours she gets out so that her twin 5 year old boys can play with her. That was the first time I realized dogs can scream, cry out in pain. So Lucy learned how to hide when she got out of her crate/cage. This was a sad situation for me to see. I started to go over and offered to take Lucy out and bring her to my house every day and look after all.. knowing Susan was too busy with her boys, and life in general. I would be more than happy to watch Lucy much to Ry’s joy and happiness. I can’t even tell you what this picture is like. Ry was very tall boxer and this tiny corgi coming into our lives. Ry was so excited he was shaking. The first time they met, Ry laid down. I put Lucy on the ground and she climbed all over him with those cute puppy needle teeth, sunk them into his face. His tail never stopped wagging. It was love at first sight. This was his baby and she was in charge.

I wish it was all fun and games. But there were some horrific times for Lucy. I remember many mornings picking her up while my husband was still in the shower handing him Lucy because she was covered in her own feces. My husband was such a good sport, he took her in and would wash her. He had a big warm towel waiting for her, almost every day now. I was also lucky because my girlfriend’s husband Mark lived down the street and he pitched in whenever I needed help with Lucy. I think we were all falling in love with this little girl. This was a reciprocal love affair. I can remember one day standing out front of my house, holding her, Lucy would fall asleep in my arms. Susan’s husband came home and was amazed. I asked why? His reply was, we have never been able to hold her, she bites, cries and shakes all the time when she’s with us. I felt so sad for them, but more for Lucy.

I think it was very poignant that I met some house guests of Susan’s for a weekend. We were chit chatting and told them I was coming in to get Lucy, the puppy. Now, they had been there 2 days already, and they said to me, puppy? what puppy? They didn’t even know there was a puppy living in the house. Lucy’s visits became more frequent and her stays became longer, up to even 8 hours. It was harder and harder to take her home. Her heart would break, when I put her back in the crate and had to leave. I had to remember this was not my dog. Lucy belonged to my neighbor, and I was only puppy sitting.  Well, my girlfriend Ming and I had to go out of town. I was nervous about leaving Lucy. Up to this point, I had things under control. We are gone for the weekend. We get back home. First thing, I check on Ry who is a wreck. He is running around the house and I understand what he is asking. So I immediately go next door to check on Lucy. This when the horror story begins. Lucy had run away.  Not just once, but seven times. On top of that, she was at one point kidnapped by some boys and a couple noticed that Lucy was trying to get escape so they approached the boys and the boys let her go. The one good thing is that Lucy did have a collar with a phone number. 

So Susan goes on and on about Lucy running away and away. I felt guilty of course Lucy was looking for me.  I had found Lucy many times on my door step and then I’d just let her in. No one even realized she was gone.  Of course, I wanted to bring Lucy home to see Ry so he knew she was safe. 

Later that night, I had to return her, again. Monday morning, I am getting ready to leave for my work out as I do every Monday. Now Ry is acting absolutely crazy this morning. He won’t let me leave the house, he’s pushing on me. I finally get out of the house leaving the house keeper with Ry to help try and calm him down. I am running late at this point. I open the garage and get in the car, and all of a sudden in comes running this little Lucy crying. I pick her up and can’t figure out what is wrong. Next thing I know, I pull her away from me and I am covered in dog poop. Oh no! I am yelling help, Teresa! She brings a towel and wraps Lucy. I cannot be late for my appt. I run upstairs to change. I grab the puppy and drive down to my girlfriend’s house and ring the bell and hand the puppy to Mark. I explain what has happened. Now, Mark takes Lucy to bathe her. 

I come back later to check on Lucy and Mark. They are fine. Lucy smells wonderful and looks very happy to be so loved. 

I have now made a decision. I was going to talk to Susan and her family about Lucy. I could not take Lucy back there again. I promised Lucy, Ry, Mark, myself I could not do this. That evening, I went over I understood they loved the dog and what was best for her. I appreciated that their schedules didn’t allow for the time and energy that a puppy needs. I felt that I had to find Lucy a good home. Susan did admit she was overwhelmed with the boys, the house and her many commitments. She did feel guilty she did not have the time that Lucy required. Her husband admitted he wanted Lucy as a distraction for his wife. In the end, they agreed to give me Lucy. 

This is not the end, with me, it’s never that easy. Now, I decide I need to find Lucy a good home. I told you, it’s not the end. I did, I found her a great home. My trainer at the gym, his sister had just lost her dog named Lucy. Her and her roommate would be interested. So I thought, this is great. Lucy will have a great home close to me. He came and picked Lucy up. He gave me their address so I could check on her because she was still taking some medication at that time. Probably for the diarrhea she had from living next door. She is gone only 2 hours. I drag Ming and her close friend Heather who is visiting from Seattle. We go to visit Lucy. She is running in the yard. No one is around. She runs right over to me. I scooped her up and kiss her. Finally someone comes out of the house, I explain to her what Lucy needs, her medications, food, sleeping etc. We spend about 30 min looking at Lucy’s new home, seems ok but I find it very difficult to leave. 

I get home. 3 hours have now passed since I have given Lucy to a good home. I then tell my husband, I want Lucy back. That he has to call the house to get her back. I feel they are not taking good enough care of her, I was going crazy. Of course my husband said no. He was no help. So I call Ming and Heather for moral support. I finally called the woman back and said I had made a mistake. I did not realize how attached I was to Lucy. That I loved her and this was her home. And that I hoped she would understand that Lucy had been with me for a couple of months.  They hung up and refused to give her back. Now, I’m really losing my mind! How could they be attached in 3 hours? They didnt have to wash the caca off of her! Mark was already attached and wanted her too. He wanted to kill me for giving her away to anyone but him. I finally call my Trainer and plead with him. He says, he’ll handle it in the morning. What a sleepless night Ming, Heather, and myself had. Even my friend Marilyn called Ming continuously to get the dog back. Everyone knew of the attachment I had to Lucy which more than I realized myself. Well it turned out ok, because Frankie the trainer came driving up the next morning with a very happy Lucy in the car. Ry was jumping for joy, his little sister was home safe. 

So, see, even a person that loves Boxers when rescuing another dog can fall in love along the way.

Ry was the rescuer and I was the facilitator.