Princesse Ladylove Lucie, beloved sweetheart of a dog, passed away quietly in San Francisco, California, Thursday, April 1st, 2010 after being diagnosed with liver cancer. She leaves behind The Husband, Kellybean, Peanut and Ringo.
Lucie was born January 4, 2003 in San Jose, California. She was one in a litter of eight puppies. She came home with The Husband and Kellybean when she was eight weeks old.
She spent her formative months in the Parkmerced and Parkside districts of San Francisco before making Miraloma Park her home for the last 5 1/2 years.
Lucie lived a wonderfully full life. She enjoyed chasing after tennis balls (thanks Phil!) and squirrels (and even tried climbing a tree to catch them!), swimming (Lake Tahoe, Fort Funston and Ocean Beach were some of her favorite spots), and hiking (Big Sur or in the Oakland Hills with Hershel). Lucie also got to walk the field at At&T park and enjoy a San Francisco Giants game.
She was a great friend to all the children she met, no matter how much they pulled her tail or teased her with treats. Peanut especially enjoyed blowing bubbles for Lucie.
Lucie was also a great friend during the rough times – she was a pup that would be there for you. She provided a happy smile and reminded us that everything would be okay as Kellybean experienced her first miscarriage.
She brought sunshine and a smile to everyone she met and she will be dearly missed by all. We feel very fortunate to have had her in our lives for as long as we did.
Peace out Skippy
Well, one of the many difficult things for me now is going downstairs knowing that my 4-legged furball isn’t there.
Mourning is a bitch.
This time around, Lucie’s decided to throw us a curve ball…
The symptoms just came on like gangbusters. In the span of 12 hours, Lucie had gone from that happy, healthy dog to a sick, depressed and lethargic dog. After two-and-a-half days, we decided to bring her to the emergency hospital. After a couple hours, Lucie was initially diagnosed with liver failure due to either an infection or an ingested toxin. After spending the weekend under the watchful care of the emergency hospital staff, Lucie seemed to be getting better. However, as soon as we brought her home, we knew she wasn’t well. She just wasn’t herself, so The Husband brought Lucie back to the emergency hospital, so at least she could get hooked up to an IV and get hydrated.
The following Monday, we headed to the vet, who decided to keep Lucie and get a sampling of her liver cells. Still not herself when we brought her home, back to the emergency hospital she went.
By Tuesday morning, it seemed that Lucie had turned the corner. She was holding her head up again, wagging her tail, and just seemed so much happier. But, to be careful, she spent the day at the vet, just to make sure she was on the mend, and to get a sampling of liver cells, just to find out what caused her liver to fail.
Then I get the call. The good news was, the vet was able to get an adequate sampling. The bad news was, the sampling contained cancer cells.
CANCER?
As my heart was dropping into my stomach, the vet started to rattle off words…biopsy…lymphoma…carcinoma…prognosis…chemo.
At that point I felt that I had stepped into this alternate universe. Surely, the vet had the wrong info, Lucie is only 7 – she’s much too young to have cancer.
To be continued…
Lucie is lying quietly on her bed.
In walks Mads with her Tinkerbell faux digital camera. She aims the camera at Lucie.
Mads: Lucie say cheese!
Lucie: silence
(click, camera says, “pixie perfect!”)
M: Good job Lucie goose.
M aims the camera again at Lucie
M: Lucie! Say cheese! Lucie say cheese!
L: (looks up and sees no hope for a quiet nap)
(click, camera says, “say tinkerbell!”)
M: Oh Lucie – good job Lucie goose.
I really need to get these “overheards” on video!
(K walks into living room to see Mads sitting on Lucie like a horse.)
K: What did mommy say Mads? Lucie is not a horse.
M: A doggie.
K: Yes, Lucie is a doggie. So can you please not sit on Lucie like a horse?
M: Lucie doggie.
I know that if she could, Lucie would be putting ads out for a new family…for Mads. Poor Lucie.
I succumbed and signed up for a UToob account…and now Kellybean has video! (in an indirect way)
Here’s Lucie!
MoPho of the day (heh, I couldn’t resist)
(Can you believe this January weather we’re having? It was on the chilly side, but still, a beautiful day!)
Mads and I took Lucie for w-a-l-k this morning at fort funston (pictured above). As usual, there were many a dog walker and their packs. I can tell that Lucie misses being part of a pack because she’ll just stand and watch them run and play, and sometimes she’ll insert herself into their games. I feel bad for her, but if it weren’t for her darn ball-centric-alpha-behavior that gets her into trouble…
Additional first words for Mads: “Lucie come NOW! I mean it!”
If Lucie could convey her thoughts on how her 4th birthday went, it’d probably be those two words. The weather was eh, so we didn’t go for our usual morning outing. To make up for it, Mads and I went to our local grocery store and bought a pound of their bow wow burgers. I had planned to grill them up for Lucie’s birthday dinner. Lucie never left my side as the smell of searing meat was floating above the Foreman grill. Since I had felt bad that she’s no longer priority #1, I gave her the whole pound (yes, one pound) of bow wow burgers in her bowl. She practically inhaled every little morsel. After she had finished off the meat, Madison and I sung Happy Birthday to her and I gave her a pupcake for dessert. Silly me forgets what happens to Lucie when she eats too much, too fast. 10 minutes later, there was a regurgitated pound of meat and a pupcake in a nice pile on Madison’s rug (thank goodness, this puppy puke doesn’t stain). I felt even more awful! Here I try to do something nice for Lucie and she pukes it all up. Fabulous. Lesson learned for next time.
Crazy how quickly she’s grown!
Sleeping is what she does best 😉
picture of the day, 4 january 2007
here’s lucie as she chows down those bow wow burgers
Do not run after black “cats” with white stripes on their back or you will end up stinky, somewhat pink (she got sprayed around 11p last night, so we doused her in tomato juice to fend off the odors until i could make a trip to petco), and be doused again with nature’s miracle skunk odor remover.
I knew that Lucie wouldn’t have a problem with Madison…
