LuLu Arrives

LuLu came into our life desperate to get out of the place her old people called home, she was a mess, at best. She hadn’t been bathed or groomed in years and had been living under a porch for going on five years. She’s a sensitive gal, eighty pounds of sensitive. When her owners brought her over we weren’t looking for a dog this big, this dirty and this ungroomed, but destiny strikes at odd times and you take advantage of it.

She made a beeline to my wife right away, no hesitation, no foreplay, she wanted out and probably figured this could be no worse than where she presently resided. I looked at this mud ridden mutt and thought “why not, we all deserve a chance”. She’s a mix of an Australian Huskie and a Golden Retriever and there was more, much more to her. My recently passed father had called my second daughter LuLu, and that daughter had both breeds and the same reddish colored hair our new family member had, it was kismet.

LuLu was timid around men, the story we got was fuzzy, but my wife had already fell in love, so what’s a guy to do. LuLu had spent the last five years hiding from the other family dog, under a porch in Northern Idaho, to say she was a mess was the understatement of a lifetime, but she needed a chance and we needed a dog, we both scored. Our first chore was getting her in the bathtub, it was still winter and my job was to lift her into the tub, a place she didn’t want to be and it certainly wasn’t an easy task.

After getting her settled we made sure the water was warm and we watched in amazement as a forest of dirt, mud and hair soon clogged our drain. LuLu never uttered a word, she sat stoic as we went to work. She cleaned up fairly well but we just got rid of the outer layer so we set her an appointment for a full grooming which I was more than glad to cough up money for. LuLu has avoided that bathroom ever since, for three years now she hasn’t stepped foot, or is it paw, in that particular room.

LuLu had her work cut out for her, though timid, she had the task of training us, and she works tirelessly on that task. She picks up on my wife’s moods, my wife has Fibromyalgia and LuLu is her constant companion. She worked her self into our hearts within hours, and if my wife is having an off day, LuLu will not leave her side. She is faithful as a summer day is long.

LuLu and I have come to an u dersranding as well, she’s an attention hog and she constantly seeks me out for petting, we even gave our own song, The Valley Road by Bruce Hornsby, and if she hears that song she finds me, and you can’t make thus up. She’ll set her self at my feet and won’t leave until the song us over, she’ll jump on my lap whenever she feels like it and it’s hard to get upset with a girl that was living under a porch for five years.

She’s changed the diet we originally had her on and refuses to eat unless one of us is in the room, apparently she enjoys family dinners. LuLu and I talk quite often, though I do the majority of the talking and she listens patiently. When her mom is gone she now has the ability to channel her and keeps an eye on me, I’ve Been known to have a few beers and LuLu and I will sit out by the fire pit enjoying ourselves, but I can see the disdain in her eyes when I walk past her to get another beer, I swear she’s counting, just like her mom.

When we first met her I wasn’t sure, she was mangy, dirty and afraid of men, but over the last three years we’ve worked out our differences and she runs a tight ship. Neither my wife or I can imagine life sans LuLu and hope and pray we have many more, she’s made our house a home, gave an older couple a family, she was a dirty treasure dug out from the depths and we count ourselves the lucky ones.