Lucy's Best Friend!

A few weeks back I took Lucy out front to get the mail with me. Usually she is really good at staying with me and not leaving the yard. Well this day my neighbor was out front with her dog. Lucy saw them and took off running before I even got down our stairs. I of course was yelling at her. But it turned out to be one of the best things she has done! That day she met her BFF, Rylee! Rylee is a gorgeous Louisiana Catahoula cattle dog with piercing blue eyes! She is about 30 lbs heavier than Lucy but will lay down and let Lucy crawl all over her. They played wonderfully in our neighbor's front yard.

Well today she did the same thing, while I was on the phone none the less! But it is so fun watching them play. Rylee likes to put her head under Lucy's body and lift up, so Lucy does the same thing. This time another neighbor was over with her dog Princess. Princess is a lab/chow mix and is 14 years old. But she did her best to keep up with the young ones! Lucy led them in races around the two front yards, over obstacles such as bushes and through legs of us women, nearly taking one out! They had so much fun! At one point Lucy led them over a bush, Rylee made it over and poor Princess tried and didn't quite make it. They finally found some shade in the garden under a bush. They looked so cute! I wish I had a picture of them together. Oh well I will get one when Rylee comes over for a play date one day!

The amazing thing was that they stayed in the yards for the most part. Lucy took off to say hi to another neighbor walking down to get his mail. She is a little social butterfly. She has to say hi to everybody! I think she has my Grandma's friend's spirit in her. Alice used to say hi to every stranger she saw especially if they had a baby! It was sad when we left to head home. I was carrying Lucy to go across the street and poor Rylee followed us down the drive like asking why we had to leave. She looked sad to lose her playmate.

She is a tired pup now!

Lucy and her 6 baby bunnies

When we moved into our house we discovered that we had wild bunnies in our yard all the time. One time when we had our first dinner guests over and were enjoying dinner we saw some bunnies going through the yard. By the time I turned around to see them they started doing what bunnies are infamous for doing! We thought it was so funny and still make jokes about them.

Well last summer I was cleaning house so I kicked Lucy outside. While I was coming downstairs I heard this high pitch crying. It didn't sound like Lucy but I couldn't be sure. So I ran outside to our top deck and yelled for her. I found her on the side of the house, she looked up at me and then ran back to something small and brown in the yard. She looked so happy and when she went back to it I heard the crying again. So I quickly called her to me and locked her in the house. I went down and discovered a baby bunny. His eyes were still closed. I called Terry and he was excited and was going to bring home a box.

This little guy eventually made it through our chain length fence, so I felt safe to let Lucy out again. That time she found another one in our garden. So when Terry got home with the box we put the two gently in the box. Then Terry felt around where we found the second one and discovered 3 more in a nest. So now we had five bunnies and no idea what to do with them. We couldn't leave them in the backyard with Lucy there. We weren't sure how the first one got so far from the nest. Either it got away or Lucy carried it away. I honestly don't think Lucy would've hurt them but we couldn't trust her.

Terry looked up how to feed them and went out and got all the stuff we needed. It did not come easy. They wouldn't eat. I finally got a couple to eat from me. Later that night we were researching more about them and Lucy was outside, when I heard that crying again. All I could say was "Shit! There's another one!"  So now we had 6 baby bunnies and no idea how to get them to eat.

I know it looks like she wants to eat the bunny in this picture but she didn't and wouldn't! Lucy was just curious of the bunnies. Every time we took them out or was trying to feed them she wanted right in on the action.

Well the next day we were able to give them to a friend who had a friend on a farm that could take care of them. She was able to release five of them. The runt was the only one that died.

Laser!

So, I just have to post that the best gift Lucy has ever received was her Easter gift from my parents. They got her one of those laser lights. I love it! It tires her out so quickly. We live in a Tri-level house so I love shining it up the stairs, then back down to the living room and then down the stairs to the office. It is so funny when she is coming down the stairs because she slides across the hardwood floors. It is so funny watching her try and stop herself. She has learned that if she tries to sit she can stop a little faster. We love playing this game with her. I've also discovered that if she acts tired I just have to shine it on her paw and she goes at it again! Very entertaining and a must have if you have a hyper active dog!

Which reminds me, I really believe that Lucy has ADHD and maybe some Autism in her. I constantly say if she was a kid she would be riding the short bus everyday! So do they make Ritalin for dogs? I swear she can't focus on anything for to long, and she is hyper almost 24/7!
 Now you are probably wondering why I think she Autistic. Well she is very routine, meaning if I change my morning routine she will let me know! For example, this week we haven't been playing Frisbee outside because the grass has been to long and wet, and I don't want to get my feet and bottom of my pants wet every morning. So she has been crying more in the morning and when I let her outside to go potty before I leave she runs out and pounces on a Frisbee and looks up at me. Or if I go to the bathroom before I go downstairs for breakfast instead of after I eat she seems to think that we need to go outside and play.  I have also noticed lately that she starts whining about 7:15 am. I couldn't figure out why until one day I really looked at the time and remembered that we use to go out at about that time to play, but I have been running late lately and haven't been getting out in time. I guess she was letting me know I was late!
I love my very special girl!

This describes her best at times!

Couch Chewing Puppy!

We knew pretty early on that Lucy didn't like her crate and didn't like being without us, but we didn't know to what extent until late August. In August I came home to find that she decided that our couch was a chew toy! Luckily for us she moved the big back pillows and attack that part behind the pillows.

 So we were able to do some patch work with the help of my mom and cover it back up and nobody was to the wiser. Well that was until she did it again. I'm not sure how many times she tore open that part, but one of those times I stitched it up and bought a nice brown fleece blanket from the Goodwill to put on the couch. My mom told me to stitch it onto the couch. Then one day in October I came home to discover that she tore open the arm rest of the couch. That was the day I put her in her kennel while we went to dinner and found her sticking out of the kennel (crate 2). That time she attacked the back of the couch where her kennel was sitting. I'm not sure what her issue is with that couch!That's when we started her on sedatives and working on training her more. We were told to take her on a walk before we leave the house, which we started doing. We then started putting things on our couches so she couldn't get to them. We put all of our kitchen chairs on the couch with bar stools on top of them, we put boxes on the love seat and blocked off behind the couch with her kennel and more boxes. It is now work to leave the house! Well one day she got back behind the couch and chewed on it more by standing on her back legs. Then in March I came home to find that she finally attacked our love seat. She attacked the front of it.

Luckily I was able to find some fabric that looked good and was able to make it look like new. The next day I made sure we put stuff in front of the love seat so she wouldn't destroy it again. I couldn't afford to have to stitch it up again with my husband's birthday party being the next day. So Friday when I got home from work I collapsed and start crying when I came up our stairs. She had totally destroyed the back of the love seat which is one of the first things you see when you walk in my house. We have since called the vet and got her on new meds which are helping I think (knock on wood). We moved the love seat so she can no longer get to the back of it anymore.

I'm pretty sure I could start a business fixing couches that animals have destroyed! The positive to all this is that I am finally learning how to sew and becoming quite well at it too!

Lucy and her 3 Crates

To start off with you need to know that Lucy has severe separation anxiety from her momma! Therefore let me tell you the story of her 3 crates. We first started her with a metal crate we got from my mother-in-law. It was a little small for her but big enough for her to lay down. The first night we had her, we first put her in our bathroom downstairs because we felt the crate was too small. After an hour of hearing her tearing that room apart, I went down and tried sleeping on the floor. I quickly decided that was not going to work for us especially since she wanted to sleep with the light on. I decided to try the kennel and lay next to it until she fell asleep. Victory for me it seemed to work, key word seemed! I woke up a couple hours later hearing a pitiful cry coming from downstairs. When I went in the room I found Lucy's head sticking out of the kennel. She had pulled back two of the metal bars and got stuck. She had also pulled in the towel that was outside of the kennel and my blanket and tore up the rug that was there. We quickly learned that she needed to sleep in our room.

Crate 2 was bought and was a nice large plastic one. We tried training her and leaving her in following all the protocols every trainer seems to give. But slowly over time she chewed through the hard plastic and got a 1" by 2" hole in it. Well one day she did something really bad while I was at work (she chewed the couch) and we were going out for dinner so I had to put her in her kennel. After two hours she made that small hole into a big enough hole for her head, neck and paw to come through.

Crate 3 was bought the next day. We went to the vet got some sedatives for her and had an appointment to meet with a trainer one on one to fix the problem the next day. I left her in the new kennel when I went to work. When I got home she had chewed two of the bars off towards the back of the kennel. The worst part and the part I don't understand was that she dragged her bed through that hole and destroyed it. When I left her bed was outside of her kennel at the front of the kennel close to the gate. I can not for the life of me figure out how she manage to get the bed towards the back of the kennel! Needless to say she doesn't not stay in a kennel. Although she does sleep in one and does great at night. I hope one day she might be able to stay in a kennel when we are gone, but I am not holding my breath!



Meet Lucy

Our lives changed dramatically almost a year ago when my husband and I decided we wanted to get a puppy. We searched hard! It was actually sad at times. We both fell in love with a puppy on an adoption website where you had to apply and they never responded. We would visit the humane society a couple of times a week but were disappointed each time. Finally, one Saturday we went in the morning and found nothing. We happened to be driving near it again later that day and I convinced Terry to stop again. We walked right in the kennel area and it was like a magnet I was drawn right to her. I quickly read her information she was six months and an Australian Shepherd mix. Perfect I thought, a puppy, a female, and a breed that should get big! Not to mention she was the cutest thing ever black and white with a spotted white ear. We filled out the paper work and got to sit with her. She crawled right in my lap and refused to see Terry. I was in love! We had to wait 3 days since she had to get spayed. During that time we had to figure out a name. All the names we suggested to each other got shot down by the other. I finally suggested Lucy from my favorite show I Love Lucy. That was it! I compromised on her middle name which is Xanthercar. Well I guess the name either fit her perfectly or she took after her namesake, since she is always getting in trouble!
In the past year I have come up with so many struggles with her. But I still love her like the day I met her. People tell me all the time that they would have given her up. (You will understand after I post more stories) But to me she is not a pet she is my child, my baby! If I ever have a child who presents as much problems as she has I would never get rid of my child, therefore I will never give up Lucy until she takes her last breath. (Which at times I wonder if that will be at my husband's hands! Just kidding he only jokes but he loves her too!)
So this blog I hope to share my stories and the funny things Lucy does!