We lost our great dog Lucy today. She had been sick some time and finally old age claimed a great dog. She had been with us about thirteen years. We were "loaned" Lucy while her original family went on vacation. I know it was a ploy to get rid of that poor girl, as she was accused of chewing things up, something she never did with us. I hate to admit when I first saw her I said, "That's the ugliest dog I've ever seen!" It was a bit of anger towards knowing what this family wanted to do with this dog - give her away. We took her and she took to me. In theory she was Caty's dog, but Lucy didn't know that really; she loved us all and really responded to me. She loved to go bye-bye, meaning to ride in a car or Suburban. She hated baths, but once Nellie started she gave in and received the bath. She was great at hiding and being stubborn when she heard the water running and the word bath mentioned out loud. She was a calm dog and never panicked or went hyper on us. She loved music (poor dog had no choice in this household) and when she saw me jumping around to rock, she would stand right in front of me as if to say, "Hey! I can dance!" And she would. She knew that when I wore a baseball cap it was time to go for a walk. She also had an internal clock that told her when it was Sunday morning. On Sunday mornings early, she would come with me in the old Suburban to go to the nearest Starbucks in Harlingen and later here in Corpus Christi, to pick up a copy of the Sunday Times. We never fought for any particular sections, though I think she secretly loved reading Modern Love and parts of the Arts and Leisure that featured full page color ads of movies. She was also a great HEB dog that would wait patiently for me while I went in alone to the store and would get super excited when she saw me coming back, jumping all three seats in that truck to come and see what I had bought.
Then the day came when arthritis got more than she could bear to jump up on the Suburban and that one Sunday I told her I was sorry and I couldn't take her with me. I don't know if she ever forgave me for that. When I got back I would take her from the side entrance of our backyard to the front yard and let her sniff around to get the latest news from neighborhood dogs. I think she liked that but wasn't too happy to not be riding in the truck any longer. I remember when she would tire after about a block of walking and stubbornly held back so that I would walk slower or not run with her.
I woke up yesterday thinking that she had finally gone home and thought that Sunday would be an appropriate day for her to rest in the Lord, but she picked up her ear when she heard the door open and opened her eyes when I called to her. It was about a week ago I made her favorite noise, scraping a plate with a fork. She got up and moved from her favorite spot to come closer to our patio. I think Jesus used that sound sometime this morning when it was time to leave her old, sickly body, to run in the fields of grass that I know have been prepared for precious animals such as Lucy. In fact, Nellie said she dreamed last night that Lucy was better and was running all over the place like she used to; God's way of telling her and us that today would be the day she would run in another place where there is no pain nor sorrow nor death.
So, goodbye dear friend and family member. I will always remember you and miss you. I pray that one day we will again run in wonderful fields and not grow tired.
