{"id":38200,"date":"2025-11-02T01:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T06:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=38200"},"modified":"2025-11-02T21:43:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:43:29","slug":"goodbye-lucy-2012-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=38200","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye, Lucy (2012?-2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Living with me wasn\u2019t Lucy\u2019s first home. I wasn\u2019t even her second family. I was her third home.<\/p>\n

She first lived on a chain in someone\u2019s back yard in a dangerous neighborhood. After she was rescued from that life, she lived in an overcrowded apartment with a couple who had far too many rescued animals, including five dogs.<\/p>\n

When that couple had to move, they could take only three of the dogs. Someone else wanted the fourth dog, but nobody wanted Lucy. On the day before the couple had to be out of their apartment, I agreed to take her. So she lost the only people she knew \u2014 once again.<\/p>\n

When I brought her home<\/a> with me on Jan. 25, 2016, she was confused and scared. I promised her that day that she now had a home for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n

Roughly 10 years later, that promise has been fulfilled. I lost this precious girl very early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been through the deaths of countless dogs and cats over the years \u2014 and it never gets easier. Losing Lucy is especially hard, because she\u2019s been a perfect dog. Literally.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been an amazing friend. And it\u2019s hard for me to accept that she\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to accept Lucy when I was asked to take her. A neighbor knew the people where she lived and that person was trying to help find a new home for her. She asked me \u2014 and I said no.<\/p>\n

Several times, she asked. Several times, I declined. I was too busy to take care of a dog. I had recently moved into an old house that needed a lot of work. My life and career were in turmoil. It just made no sense to take responsibility for a new dog.<\/p>\n

I agreed to help try to find a home for her. I took a couple of photos to post on Facebook and I offered her to my friends. When I met Lucy for the pictures, she was scared and very confused. She didn\u2019t want to trust a stranger.<\/p>\n

I was told by the people with whom she lived that she would always be a \u201cspecial-needs dog,\u201d because she was terrified of people. Based on my limited interaction with her, I believed them.<\/p>\n

The day came when these people had to move. Nobody had stepped up and offered her a home. I couldn\u2019t get this girl out of my mind. So I finally offered to provide a temporary home for her \u2014 while we kept looking for a permanent home.<\/p>\n

I brought her home that night telling myself it was temporary. In my heart, I knew I could never give her up. And that’s why I promised her on that night she had a home for life.<\/p>\n

For the first few days \u2014 maybe even weeks \u2014 she was still scared. She was definitely confused about having a new home and a new human.<\/p>\n

But over the weeks and then months, she changed. She absolutely blossomed. Where there had been fear and skittishness around people, she learned to be confident and friendly.<\/p>\n

Before I knew it, there was nothing left of the scared dog who I had been told would always be a \u201cspecial-needs dog.\u201d Instead, she was happy and relaxed and friendly. I quickly nicknamed her the World\u2019s Happiest Dog.<\/p>\n

Most of all, though, she was loving.<\/p>\n

Lucy loved me most of all. She wanted to be close all the time. She completely trusted me and instinctively obeyed in a perfect way. She got along with all the cats I had at the time and she\u2019s continued to make friends with the cats who\u2019ve come and gone over the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

Over the last year, she started declining. She looked older and she moved a bit more slowly. She still wanted her nightly walks, but she wasn\u2019t quite as fast. She still patrolled the neighborhood and kept us safe from varmints and ne\u2019er-do-wells.<\/p>\n

Even as her body slowed, her joy never did. She was still friendly and happy with everyone she met.<\/p>\n

In the last couple of months, she got slower and slower. She was still happy and loving, but she looked old. She looked and acted tired. I knew she was declining, but I was in denial about how little time she had left.<\/p>\n

In the last two weeks or so, she could no longer take her beloved walks. She still went into her fenced back yard every evening when I came home from work \u2014 until her last few days \u2014 but she mostly just sat near the door to the house and watched the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

And a few minutes ago, she left us for good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be very different around here without Lucy. I won\u2019t have to be running home so frequently to make sure she gets out of the house. I won\u2019t hear her tail hitting the door \u2014 as she wags her tail \u2014 when I start unlocking the front door when I come home. It\u2019s going to be quieter since she won\u2019t be around to bark at unfamiliar noises in the night. There will be a lot to get accustomed to.<\/p>\n

Mostly, though, I\u2019m going to miss a wonderful friend \u2014\u00a0a sweet and loving girl who\u2019s been my constant companion for 10 years.<\/p>\n

I kept my promise, Lucy. You were home and you were loved \u2014 all the way to the end.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> For details of Lucy\u2019s last day with me, here\u2019s an account<\/a> of how the end came.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living with me wasn\u2019t Lucy\u2019s first home. I wasn\u2019t even her second family. I was her third home. She first lived on a chain in someone\u2019s back yard in a dangerous neighborhood. After she was rescued from that life, she lived in an overcrowded apartment with a couple who had far too many rescued animals, Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-9W8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38200"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38221,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38200\/revisions\/38221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}