Fred's Watching Over Me!, My new beginning with Lucy Options

[patricia]

it's been a while since ive posted. my life has been slightly chaotic ever since my little lucy has come into my life. she came exactly one week after fred got sick. i didnt want her at first but how can we say no to any furry creature that needs a home. shes a little terrier (or as i prefer to call her: a terror) mix and shes about 7 1/2 months old now. she was rescued from a kill shelter in LA, at about 4 months, and then the new owner decided that it was too much for him so he released her into the streets. her foster family found her laying by the side of the road as she'd been hit by a car. they rushed her to er and paid for all her medical/surgical bills. when she was finally ok to go home, her foster family found her owner. i guess he felt remorse and posted missing signs everywhere. they met with him and asked him to help with half of the payments and he refused and in fact rejected her again, saying he was single and didnt have time to care for her. her foster parents took her in but unfortunately could not keep her. my fred sent her my way and now shes found her forever home. it wasnt easy. the first day i cried and cried because i missed my fred so much. and i was angry! how could i take in a dog so soon afer my little cat had died? but this was all part of freds master plan. it came to a point where i called some friends and confessed that i would not be able to keep her. that was the pivotal moment: because i remember lucy looking at me with her beautiful sad eyes begging me not to give her away again. at that exact moment, i knew that i couldnt do that to her and i would have to make it work. it didnt take long for me to fall absolutely head over heels in love with her. missing fred? its still not easy. i come to work and turn on my computer to freds sweet little face and i will just lose it. or i listen to one of his songs and i sob. i dont know when that pain will go away. but i do know that as the clock tics daily, i look forward to getting home because i know my little lucy goosey is waiting for me. she loves to go on her walks, just me and her. and she loves coming back home and turning into what i call "lucy-fur" where her eyeballs start spinning and she goes a little crazy. then she settles down right next to me, hopefully i will have treats for her, and falls asleep. i have to wake her in order to go outside one last time and then she runs into her crate for the night. well, she runs because she always has a little cookie in there waiting for her. i love waking up in the middle of the night to hear her little snoring. and in the morning? well its hard for me no to open her crate door immediately. i think im more excited to see her than she is to see me. shes my little monkey. people tell me that little rescue animals know they are rescued and are doubly grateful to be with us. but i say, im the one thats grateful…to have her in my life. she makes me laugh again, and smile and when she wraps her little paws around my neck and lays her little head on my shoulder, or tries to eat my earring, well, i couldnt ask for more. my wonderful fred: i love you so much and i will never never never forget you. thank you for giving me lucy. she will never replace you but she makes me happy again just like you always did my little sweet. momma loves you forever!

[patricia]

hmmm. well where do i begin? its been a while since ive posted any of lucy's newest (ehem) adventures and believe me there have been plenty of them
well in june i began to plan lucy's first camping trip. yes my mother, myself and our little heroe would be taking a road trip up north to yosemeti. as a child my parents would take us there every summer for a week. and now that my dad is coming up on 8years of him being gone, i thought it would be a nice walk down memory lane.
september 10 could not come fast enough. of course lucy had the most things to pack, her crate, toys, food, snacks, toys, snacks, toys, snacks she even got a pair of doggles for the trip. well the 7 hour trip was pretty good. we made several stops to make sure lucy stretched out and drank water and all that good stuff and finally we entered the windy road that leads us into the beautiful park. five minutes in, yes i had relented to letting her sit on grammas lap, out came her first load of snacks. right on grammas lap. nice and orangy. lucy loves her carrots. but i prefer they stay in and not all over grammas summer dress.
we stayed at a luvely lodge about 2 miles outside the park, because it was dog friendly. lucy was in awe. she couldnt believe that she was going to spend the night in this wonderful place. the river merced runs right next to the lodge so we we took a little walk the first night. her nose was seriously twitching as im sure the smells were overwhelming. every morning we would drive into the park and spend the day, where it was hike, hike, hike. by the end of every day, she would attempt to play with her toys but collapse on the bed. she was out even before momma and gramma were. when she'd poop out, i would pick her up and carry her. she didnt seem to mind it at all.
her first encounter with the river was hilarious. i didnt understand what was going on as she hates baths but jumped in the ice-cold water and immediately was thrashing around playing with…tiny little transparent fish. needless to say she didnt want to leave. the day before leaving, we attempted the walk to happy aisles. its a long walk and i was a bit worried about my mom. but she made it as did little lucy. on returning, we looked for our car (parked a few miles away) and noticed a beautiful family of deer. did lucy think they were a large dog breed? because she started barking and lunging. so embarassed. the three babies stopped, turned around and began to head her way. i quickly shoved her in the car. of course lucy though she was protecting us somehow but it was funny to see the deer approach her (behind the glass) and come up to within a few feet of her as she wildly lost her little mind. i drove away quickly, pretending that this dog had somehow just jumped into my car and i had no idea who she was. that night as i took her for her final walk: we admired the beautiful night sky with stars you can reach out and touch, breathed in the wonderful piney air and were in general having a sweet moment between owner and dog when i was violently jerked into reality. here goes my looney dog again barking and going bezerk. about 50 feet away from her, in a confrontational stance is a family of 3 raccoons. oh yeah there was major eye contact. if it had been a movie, lucy would have one hand on the gun as a tumbleweed rolled around in between them. we all just stood frozen, well except for lucy of course. when i snapped back into reality, i quickly turned around and started walking towards the room. she of course was still going nuts. as we got further away, the sweet little raccoons continued on their way, walked thru the lobby of the lodge and proceeded to go the river and mountains. i dont think lucy slept that whole night. shes never seen "dogs" that look like that my little monkey!
sunday, our last day there, we drove thru the park one more time where she said goodbye to some of her new found doggie friends and we hit the road back to los angeles. she wanted to sit with gramma and for 7 long hours she slept, yes slept in grammas arms. when i finally dropped my mom off, she was as stiff as a board (my mom not the dog). she had not moved an inch so lucy wouldnt wake up thats true love i say.
i must say im glad we didnt encounter any bears. i dont even want to think what would have happened. i like to think that the poor bear would have thought "crazy dog" and walked away...

oh and i didnt even mention the squirrels! she did great though, everytime she saw one, she sat and watched them like a little movie. very very cute, although i happen to know she would rather chase them up the tree...

more to come