Miss Personality, My LUCY!

by Billy & Shari
(Macon, GA USA)

Billy wrote the following after my baby girl died last night. She was my heart and I'll be so lonely without her.

Like I always said, Ethel was Daddy's girl and Lucy was Momma's girl. Now she's with her sister in heaven and I'm sure Ethel made sure everyone in Heaven knew Lucy arrived.

They were inseparable growing up together. Lucy was the leader of the pack and the other two always followed. There was never a dull moment with my girl around. She always knew how to have fun. May she be pain-free now and running wild, enjoying whatever mischief she finds. She's forever etched in my heart.

Ludie Lucy English
April 1996 – September 2009


We got Lucy in February 1997 from the Boise Humane Society; after she was spayed we brought her home to live with us. On the way home from the Humane Society she threw up in my Toyota truck from the effects of the anesthesia.

For most of the time she lived with us I think we were the ones living with her. She just hung around for food because she definitely had a mind of her own. She readily earned the nickname “Wild Dog.”

She was quite the character, from tearing open bags of peat moss, biting open cans of Diet Mountain Dew only after tearing open the twelve pack they came in, to mixing all this on the floor of the garage.

Running into the local RiteAid when I left the window down a little too far in the truck and thanks to the motion sensor on the doors, they opened right up for her and she came on in the store after me and went down a couple of aisles looking for me.

I just happened to notice a brown flash go by one of the aisles and thought “no it can’t be.” O but it can be and it was Lucy running up and down the aisles of RiteAid.

To stopping on the side of the road to go potty and finding the only feces within miles that smelled beyond anything imaginable and rolling in it, then running back to us ready to go on the next adventure. Boy, did it take some time and a lot of water to get only some of the smell off her. I really think we were along only to feed her and take her on the next adventure.

Approximately two plus years ago she was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease (hyperadrenocorticism), a common condition in older dogs, often mistaken for the aging process itself. Dogs gain weight, lose hair, urinate in the house, and make owners begin to prematurely consider euthanasia. It was controlled through several different medications effectively over the past two plus years.

Over the past six months Lucy began to develop difficulty using her back legs. I carried the back part up the stairs and she carried the front part every night when we went to sleep. This method worked pretty well over the past three months.

Usually on Saturday mornings we go to the dog park downtown Macon so Lucy and Brittany can get their dose of dogs and smells. I thought something unusual when this past Saturday morning Lucy would not come downstairs, and even woke me up earlier than normal for a Saturday.

So I went to McDonald’s and got her a sausage egg McMuffin and came back home and she was at the bottom of the stairs. Not sure how exactly she got there, but I carried her outside to the garage and she laid down so I tried to get her to eat the egg from her McMuffin, but she would not and only drank some water.

Sunday, she would not eat nor drink any water, and her breathing was hurried. When I was getting ready to go to bed Sunday evening I looked out the kitchen door to check on her again and saw that she was not breathing. She passed away Sunday evening.

It is hard to say how much we hurt this evening and how much we will miss her. To have her in our lives for approximately twelve and one-half years, it is difficult to lose her. Both Lucy and Ethel were such a huge part of our lives; it is going to be very tough not having them around.

We have lost another family member, and we will miss her tremendously.

Billy & Shari