I wanted to share with you all the story of my dog, Lacie. It's important to me because she was a big part of my life.
Daniel and I knew that we wanted a dog once we got married. We wanted to wait until the honeymoon was over so we can adopt a dog and dedicate our time to it. We knew we wanted to go through a rescue because there are so many dogs in shelters and foster care that need forever homes. We applied and many local rescues around Rochester and visited Lollypop Farm frequently to see if there were any dogs that we thought would fit our family well and got along with our two cats, Kit-ten and Little Dude. This seemed to be the biggest obstacle for us because most of the dogs that we fell in love with, didn't get along with cats.
There was Max from Big Dogs Big Hearts. We met him at Pet Smart with his foster mom and fell in love with him. Daniel gave me his thumbs up and we scheduled a home visit. Max loved us, but unfortunately he loved our cats too much and the rescue told us no.
Then came Captain. I fell in love with him INSTANTLY. Just from his picture and description. He was a 1 year old yellow lab from GRASP rescue in Greece, NY. Our application had already been approved from this rescue and i was so excited to show Daniel. He said he was cute and said if we liked him, we could get him. I called the rescue to get the information of Captain's foster mom. The rescue spoke volumes about Captain and said he was an amazing dog and anyone would be lucky to have him, and he LIVED WITH CATS! I was sold..... I called the foster mom that night and left a message inquiring about Captain and told them I would be willing to meet him anytime that I was really excited to hear back from her. She called me back that night when we were on our way to a Christmas concert at Church..... to tell me he was adopted THAT NIGHT. I cried for hours. I was so sure this was going to be our dog.
Then we found Suzie in January..... she was a 3 year old Shepherd mix from a Humane Society in Yates County. The lady at the shelter told us that she was a stray and they weren't sure how she was with cats. She let us foster her for a weekend to see how she would do. We renamed her Callie and fell in love with her very quickly. She was a great dog. Well behaved, very good mannered, very smart and super adorable! After a few days of having her we decided it was time to introduce her to our cats. This did not go as well as I had planned. Callie immediately became aggressive and starting snarling and drooling and barking at her. I'm lucky I didn't put Kit-ten down or else she would have been lunch! We had to take her back to the shelter the following afternoon and say good-bye to her. I was very sad, but knew that our home wasn't the best home for her. She was adopted a few weeks later and now lives in a great home with a family in Rochester.
After Callie, Daniel started to rethink the whole "dog" thing.... He liked having Callie, but he realized how much his routine changed owning a dog. He's very set in his ways and doesn't like alot of change and decided he didn't really want a dog.
After months and months of me trying to talk Daniel into "trying" again for another dog, he finally caved. The agreement was that it would be my dog, I would be the sole provider and take care of it myself. I would do the walks, the feedings, pick up the poops, vet trips and so on. After I was given the green light, I continued my search. Our application was in for multiple rescues so I continued my search with those.
Then came Sophie. a mixed spaniel. I found her on a pet finding website and she was being fostered in Rochester through a rescue called Paws and Purrs. After talking to a co-worker I discovered that another co-worker of ours was the President of that rescue! I thought this was fate. I contacted her and the foster mom and scheduled to meet her that Saturday. I FELL IN LOVE. She was the most perfect dog. So well behaved, trained, well mannered and the sweetest dog I've ever met. The chemistry was definitely there, so we scheduled a home visit so she could see our home, meet our cats and also so Daniel could meet her. The only problem was, at the meet and greet another couple had fallen in love with her, naturally. They filled out their application as well and also scheduled their home visit. Unfortunately, this rescue wasn't first come first served and told me Sophie would go to the home that best fits her. This was understandable to me, but I was sure she was ours.
The home visit came and went. Sophie changed Daniel's mind about not wanting a dog. He actually got excited about her! She got along GREAT with our cats and I was so excited! I thought we had finally found our dog! The foster mom said she would be in contact with us after the other couple's home visit to let us know their decision. I literally jumped every time my phone rang, I was waiting for the call. After a week I still hadn't heard from the foster mom who was making the ultimate decision. I decided to send her an email to ask her what the status was and if they had made their decision. She then proceeded to tell me that Sophie left my house sneezing and they came to the conclusion that she was ALLERGIC TO MY CATS and the other couple adopted her. I was devastated. Completely devastated. I felt defeated, like it wasn't in the cards for me to own a dog.
After a month or so, I started searching again. Then came Bristol, a yellow lab. She was one of three lab puppies that had just been rescued by Bright Star a local German Shepherd rescue. We were excited to find a dog at this rescue because we were already approved, we had already done the house visit with them, and Daniel's parents also rescued their Shepherd from them so we knew they were a reputable rescue. I contacted the foster mom, Nikki, to set up a meet and greet. Nikki brought over Bristol to meet us. She was a very sweet dog and she got along well with our cats. She could really care less that they were there. She was actually scared of them. She was very timid and very shy. It was hard to really get her personality cause she wouldn't come near us. We didn't really feel the chemistry with her because of how shy she was. She was shaking the entire time. Daniel wasn't feeling it. We told Nikki that we wanted to meet the other two sisters to see if they were any different.
We drove out to her house that weekend to meet the other two, Seneca and Geneva. (They were named after the cities in the Finger Lakes in Upstate NY.) Geneva was a black lab, super hyper, but very sweet. It was Seneca we fell in love with. She was a yellow lab like Bristol, but so much more outgoing, very sweet, very good mannered and very much a puppy. The sisters were only 6 months old according to the rescue which is a little younger than we wanted, but she stole my heart. I wanted her. I told the foster mom it was a go and she brought her to my house that Friday to meet our cats to make sure she was ok with them. The three sisters all lived with her cats and Seneca didn't care about them at all so we were sure it was going to work. That Friday she came over with Seneca for her to meet our cats and if all went well, we'd process the paperwork, pay the adoption fee and she'd be ours! She did great with our cats, we played with her while talking to Nikki for about an hour and gave Nikki the thumbs up! We adopted our girl on June 10th, 2011. We renamed her Lacie and she stole our hearts VERY fast.
She was definitely a puppy so there were things that we needed to train her on. She wasn't house broken and she had lots and lots of accidents in the house. She was already crate trained so that's where she slept. She was a great dog. She was a very quick learner! She didn't walk on a leash very well when we first got her. After a few walks with her and the right collar, she was walking like a pro! We introduced her to my friend Jenn's dog, a Boston named Lola. They were friends immediately! Lacie got along with every single dog she came across. She loved our neighbors dogs, all of them. Every time we walked she would try to run over to their yard to play with them. She was such a lover. She cuddled with me at night time and gave me all the kisses I could have ever wanted. She got SO excited to see me when I came home from work. She would literally do back flips when she saw me. It warmed my heart to see her get to excited to see me and I was so much more excited to come home after work! I sometimes went home on my lunch breaks to let her out to go potty and to see her. She was adorable. I loved her so much!
Before we knew it, 5 weeks had flown by and Lacie had become the love of my life. We got set on a routine and she was learning so quickly. She hadn't had an accident in her crate in over a month and things were getting better with her behavior issues. I came home from work on Tuesday, July 26th and went to feed Lacie. She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't even take her treats. She was acting normal so I thought maybe she just wasn't hungry. I didn't think much of it at all and went on with my daily activities. I was also in the process of switching out her food, so I was thinking that maybe she didn't like it.
Wednesday morning I tried to give her her breakfast and she still wouldn't eat, but she was still acting normal. I took her for our morning walk and then put her in her crate to leave for work. I put treats in her crate every morning before I leave so she would associate me leaving with good things. When I came home from work on Wednesday evening, she still hadn't eaten her treats and she had gone potty in her crate. I thought she had come down with the flu, so I let her just lay in her crate and rest.
Thursday morning she had gone potty in her crate again and wouldn't eat her breakfast. She didn't even want to go for a walk. She was drinking water at that point so I thought maybe she would just flush this bug out of her system and she'd be ok. Thursday night I got home and she didn't eat her treats again and she had gone potty again in her crate. She didn't get super excited to see me like usual and she was acting really lethargic. I cooked her white rice and brown beef to see if she would eat it so she could have something hardy in her stomach. She wouldn't even touch it. I knew something was seriously wrong because she normally wouldn't even THINK before eating human food. She wouldn't even look at it.
Friday morning I called the vet. The said to bring her in right away so I got off work early that day to take her in. When I got home, Daniel told me that she puked in her crate and went potty in her crate when he got home. I knew things were getting worse. She was trying to show me she was excited to see me, but her body just wouldn't let her. She was trying to wag her tail as fast as she could to show me she was excited, but that was all she could do. I carried her to the car and we drove to the vets office.
While we were in the waiting room, Lacie had an accident on their floor. This time, it was full of blood. I immediately started shaking. I knew her prognosis wasn't going to be easily fixed. The vet called us in and automatically started talking to me about Parvo and asked us if she had been vaccinated. I showed him all of her paper work for the shots that the rescue had given her and for the ones that we took her to get just a month prior to this. She had been vaccinated for Parvo, but he wasn't ruling it out. He told me that it was either Parvo or that she had a gastrointestinal disease. She would need to be on a strict diet and some meds and she would recover. He told me that he was going to check for Parvo first so he could rule it out. He came back with the test. I was holding her on the table the entire time just praying for her and telling her how much I loved her. He tested her and within minutes, she came back positive for Parvo.
Things were pretty blurry after that. I felt like I was moving on autopilot. I knew exactly what Parvo was and how serious it was. I also knew that puppies didn't have a good chance of making it through once it had started to run its course. Knowing all of her symptoms from that past few days, I knew that it had begun already. The vet told us that we had 1 of 3 options. The first being that we could treat her at home. Parvo is SO INCREDIBLY contagious though that we probably wouldn't have a very high success rating if we chose that option because we weren't properly equipped with everything we needed to keep her free from all the bacteria. Option 2 was to omit her into a 24 hour animal hospital so they can properly care for her, but he warned us that it was going to be highly expensive. He quoted us in the 7-8 thousand dollar range. Obviously, not being very wealthy people that option was out. Then he spoke of our 3rd option, the one I wasn't ready to hear. To put her to sleep.
I wanted to punch him. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry and take Lacie and run away and pretend that it was all a dream. Daniel held me and I held Lacie. The vet told us that he would give us as much time as we needed to make our decision, but he also warned us that it had to be today because she only had a 40% chance of even making it through the night. I was shaking, but I knew the right thing to do. She was living in anguish. The disease had already started to attack her intestines and from what we saw in the waiting room, it was running it's course. I just looked at Daniel and he knew it as well. I threw my body over Lacie and just cried and cried and cried. He went to go get the vet. The vet came back into the room and told us that he thought we were making the right decision. I couldn't breathe. Daniel asked me if I wanted to leave or stay.
A few months ago I had received an email from a friend of mine. It was about the "Ten Commandments" of a dog and the last commandment rung in my head.
10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can’t bear to watch. Don’t make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.
I decided to stay. I held her the entire time telling her how much of a good dog she was to us and how much I loved her and how much I'll miss her. I promised her I would think about her every day and that I would see her in heaven some day. The vet gave her the first shot that put her to sleep. When he was done she closed her eyes and he told us that there was another shot to give, but that she was already gone. I kissed her on her head over and over again and then her paw and told her I loved her one more time and then whispered goodbye.
I was on autopilot leaving the vet that day. I don't remember walking to the car and I don't remember getting home. All I remember was that I cried the hardest I ever remember crying in my entire life. I felt like someone ripped out my heart. She had it. She meant so much to me. Thank God for my best friend Jenn. I called her when I got home and she came over right away, no questions asked. She brought Daniel and I food which was the sweetest thing ever and stayed with me for a little while to hear my story and let me cry on her shoulder.
Every day gets better, but I still miss Lacie alot. She brought such joy to my heart and I fell in love with her so quickly. She was the sweetest dog. I think about her every day and wonder how big she would be now and how many new tricks she would have learned. There is a void in my heart now with her gone and I'm hoping someday I can find another dog to fill it. No one will ever replace my Lacie girl, but I hope someday I can love another dog as much I loved her.
She was able to meet my dad, my sister and my nephew in early July when they flew here. I was very happy they all got to meet her. Here are some pictures of her that I took during her time with us.
Her first day with us!
Lacie and her BFF Lola
I love you my Lacie girl. I will always love you, rest in peace.
"Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you. I loved you so... Twas Heaven here with you."
~ Isla Paschal Richardson
~ Isla Paschal Richardson
