For the second time in as many days I woke up and fell into the routine that has been my mornings for a long time. Awake too early, usually from a sore back. I’ll try for :37 to get comfortable and then just get up. Izzy usually puts her nose up by the bed. I give it rub and swing my feet around to the floor. I walk to the den, throw my phone in the corner of the couch where I now sit, hit the coffee button and go into the laundry room. For the last two or three days I’ve opened the dog food bin and instinctively went to fill the first bowl. The one furthest from the bin. Lulu’s bowl. But sweet Lulu is just the memories now. Her poor heart not strong enough to fight off the heart failure, well at least the decision we had to make for her. 

In 2012, I worked for Mizuno selling running shoes and in March of  that year, one before the bombing and two before Meb Keflezighi’s unlikely victory, I was at the Boston Marathon working. The days for that event are long but fun and as such phone access is minimal during the days. It was on Saturday of this trip that during a break, I saw a text from my wife saying that she and the kids were out shopping and were going to stop by the Pet Smart to see the adoption dogs. No big deal. In continued with my day. 

An hour or so later I received 3 pictures, one of a beagle mix with the kids kneeling down by her. A second of the same beagle on the backseat of the van, and finally a picture of the same dog on our couch. Surprise!

Full disclosure, I’m a dog person. I’d have 3-4 at all times. I’m also a large teenager so my wife knows that she’s the one who’s going to be doing a lot of the work so there is a yin and yang thing going on. Or at the minimum just a “no” thing. Someone has to be the adult around here. 

The beagle came named Candy, an atrocity we set out to fix immediately, as well as a little nub tail. For as long as we had her we’d conjure up stories of how she must have lost it in some sort of accident or something. After a couple of days we settled on Lulu and she began immersing herself in the family. 

At the time we had another mutt named Shotgun who you can read about HERE, and as much as he tried to ignore her, they became fast friends. Upon his death and our getting Izzy, the same love occurred, Izzy and Lulu sharing the same crate and creating a non stop snuggle fest. Lulu wouldn’t go to sleep without her feet or nose leaning on Izzy. 

No dog is perfect and Lulu of course had a flaw, if you could call it that. She loved too much. If you pet her, she’d never want you to stop. On the occasions of her jumping up on our bed, she’d want to get closer and closer to you. It was never close enough. If she could climb into your mouth that would be close enough. Maybe. 

She enjoyed her groceries and over the years got a little plump, but come pandemic time we walked her every day and she thinned out, beaming with her new svelte figure. In June though she started coughing. We’d lost Shotgun to heart failure six years ago so we understood what was coming. She started living a bucket list kind of life. 

Having a dog die is hard. Having to choose when that happens is harder, but after 7 months of declining. We had to relieve her of her suffering and send her on her way. This is always hard. Always. A dog to most people is a  big part of the family and it’s heartbreaking to have to be the ones to decide when it’s all going to end for them. 

I won’t take the bowl out of the laundry room. If I still almost fill it by accident, that’s an easy trade for a rush of the memories of her running around, ears flopping with a permanent smile. 

The house eerily quiet without her

We will miss her dearly. 
#hugsandhi5s