Memories

Lucy died 2 weeks ago tonight.  Despite dealing with her cancer for the last 8 months, her death that Monday night was a big shock.  Will had been out of town so I was on my own for taking and picking Anders up from the Montessori and I remember thinking on my way home that I hoped Lucy would have moved from where she was when I left for work in the morning.  Well she hadn't moved and she gave me a bit of a scare by just laying there for minute staring at me.  Thankfully she was alive and after a minute she got up and went exploring around the front and back yards looking for new signs of spring.  She was even perky that evening when Will was making dinner.  Then around 9 pm I heard a noise that sounded like she had flopped down on the floor (she was a flopper) but when I went out into the dining room a few minutes later, it was apparent that she had collapsed.  We moved her into our bedroom to the spot next to the bed where she always slept and she died around 11 pm.   The whole thing was good and bad all wrapped up in one package.  Good because she died at home with us there and not stressed out at the vet's, good because it happened naturally, bad because...well, she died.  Anyway, here are some memories of our time with Lucy.  They aren't in any particular order because this program is a complete nightmare when it comes to loading and rearranging pictures and I just don't have the time or energy to try to figure out exactly how I should load the pictures so they are in chronological order.

Lucy was the most tolerant dog - at least with me and Will.  She actually went for a bike ride with us in this Burley my friend Chris gave us.  She didn't like it, but she went anyway - I think because she was so loyal and it was way better to be with us, even on a bike ride than to be without us.  She did jump out and scrape her chin on this ride, though.

Again, more tolerance.  She would pretty much do anything Will told her to do.  In this picture she is modeling our new kitchen cupboard.  Actually, this is now drawers - Will made them.

Here she is back in October 2008 very shortly after her surgery to remove the Mast Cell Tumors that I'm pretty sure did her in.  I know she was old - some thing between 14 and 15 - Rob when did you move to SLC?  But she was a healthy dog until she got cancer.  

This is back in March moments before Anders and I left for the airport to go to Colorado for a week.  I wasn't sure Lucy was going to be around when I got back.  This was the first time she was at all demonstrative with Anders.  

Ok, these next several pictures and the one above bring up a lot of emotions for me.  Lucy was the best running partner I ever had (sorry to anyone that I've run with that is reading this - it is hard to measure up to someone who runs with pure joy, though).  When we first moved into our house I wasn't running much, but then in the middle of winter I started getting up with her and taking her for walks in the snow.  She was so excited to be out that she would run like crazy and I would have to run to keep up with her.  It was so fun running at 5 am with her - the world was so quiet and I could have her off the leash with no worries about other people or cars.  She got me back into running and in the best shape I've ever been in.  She used to run up to 12 miles with me.  We would take a break at a lake or two so she could cool off and take a drink.  When she slowed down, I started running shorter runs and consequently wasn't in as good of shape as I was when she was at her peak.  I mourned the loss of her as a running partner a few years ago, but the memories of some of her antics on our runs have been coming back to me lately as I run past some of her favorite spots or people with dogs. That last picture is post-baby.

We ran in the winter and got covered in frost.  She had to wear flashing red lights so that I could see where she was in the dark. 

After every run I make a smoothie for breakfast and Lucy would wait (sometimes not very patiently) to lick out the glass when I was done.  She loved smoothies.  Now I have to rinse the left over smoothie out of the glass on my own.  

When I said she would do pretty much anything Will wanted her to do, here is an example of something she really did NOT want to do.  This is November at the lake.  The ice is very thin and she wasn't having any of it.  To me, her look says "No Way!"  I think Will might have put her on the ice anyway and if I recall correctly, she carefully and loyally followed him around.

This was her favorite spot in the kitchen, well I take that back, her favorite spot in the kitchen was at the feet of the person doing the cooking.  Or right behind you in prime tripping position - you know, with the hope that you might lose your balance and drop something tasty.  She was frequently told to not be underfoot and this is where she would go - not quite out of the room - even when there was obviously no cooking going on.  

This is the scene I happened upon one night. 

This is an incredibly cooperative moment for Lucy and Josie.  They both thought of themselves as the alpha dog, which sometimes led to some tense moments, but here they are keeping the chipmunks at bay up at Bill and Kathie's place in Wisconsin.  Lucy loved to chase squirrels and other rodents.  She actually caught a couple of mice and it appeared that she licked them to death - I had the misfortune of stepping on one with my bare foot.   We have several pictures of her sitting intently like this for hours in various places.  It turns out that this can be very exhausting.

Here we are up at the lake.  I'm not 100% sure what Lucy is doing here, but it looks like she is poking Will in the leg.  Poking us to get us somewhere or to get something was another one of her things.  It could be totally annoying, but I find now that those annoying things are something I really miss.  Another thing that was very pesky was that she always slept on my side of the bed right where my feet would land on the floor as I would get out of bed.  We both got very good at stepping around her in the dark.  I definitely miss having her there now. 

Lucy loved to stand up in boats.  She was in canoes more than motor boats, but this was a very typical position for her.  In a canoe, she was known to get all 4 feet up on the gunwhales as she watched the water in front of us.  It was crazy.  

Lucy loved the woods.  She loved to explore.  She chased all sorts of stuff from deer, to squirrels to random leaves blowing.  It was always kind of crazy to watch her take off after something - rabbits and deer got her barking this crazy, frenzied yip as she disappeared after them.  Thankfully she always came back. 

She hated swimming, but she liked to cool off - sometimes in some pretty frigid water.  This is up in northern Minnesota in May - that water was freezing. 

She was not supposed to get on the bed, but as she got older, she quit asking for permission. 

She hated these boots, but they allowed her to get into the lake in the winter.  She maybe would have been ok not going then, but we were going so so was she.

This is at Jean's house.  Lucy wanted everyone to know that she had nothing to do with this.  She also had nothing to do with all the food that mysteriously was taken down from our counter tops and eaten in our living room.  Nor did she know who took the trash out of the bathroom waste basket piece by piece to get to the gum that somebody tossed in there.  

Lucy came to our wedding. 

She also went on several canoe trips with us.

I had to post this one because we all look so funny.  

This is a really long post and I think I could go on all night, but I need to go to bed.  We are definitely missing Lucy.  It is really hard to believe that it has been 2 weeks already.  We are lucky that we have Anders here to distract us.  She has definitely left a pretty huge void in our lives.  Thanks to everyone for helping us to give Lucy a good life and for all your kind words these last 2 weeks.