Brenna and Luci in my mother-in-law's bedroom. Lulu loved those wood floors....and Brenna, too!

Rowan at 5 months enjoying those (yuck!) peas....independent from the get-go, always wanted to feed herself!

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Luci lost her fight with Lyme Disease on Monday.  We made the very, very difficult decision to help her to the Bridge.  She had stopped eating over the weekend and by Sunday night she couldn’t even get up.  Her kidneys had failed her and there was little hope of her bouncing back.  She went peacefully at the vet’s office with her favorite vet, Dr. Perkins, who has seen her through almost everything. 

Luci came to us from Donna Lee.  From the moment I saw that litter, I picked her out.  Who couldn’t resist those Hospice ears?   Many breeders don’t care for them, but she was beautiful!  And she quickly became my girl! 

I had her sleeping with me on the bed, even up until recently a few nights here and there.  She is the sole reason I know that I am allergic to dogs from all the hives and puffy eyes in the morning.  She offered the BEST back support when I was pregnant with my girls.

She was, hands down, the sweetest dog I have ever had.  She never curled her lip at anyone or any dog.  She may not have been a watchdog, but she was the love dog!  The only time that girl barked was when she was hungry or had to go out. 

She loved my girls, too.  She tolerated them well, letting them climb all over her and “ride” her.  And my girls loved her too.  When Brenna was about 2 years old, she would yell, “Poooosssyyy, wheeeerrreee arrrreee yoooouuu?”.  She had some troubles with the “L’s” then!  And Rowan would call her “Lolo”.  Luci loved stalking Rowan around the morning trying to “snag” her cereal bar.  Oh, and Rowan would scream at the top of her lungs!  It was a morning ritual I will miss dearly. 

Luci loved to take off whenever she could.  I once left the house before Matt and he was in the shower.  I didn’t shut the door tight and she and Sinatra took off in the snow and the wind.  Matt was so mad because he had to track them miles down the snowmobile trails before he found them.  I think he was madder at me!   She has chased the jogger down the road a few times, and a few times I  had to chase after her in the snow and my night robe to retrieve her!  Her antics were always amusing after the fact!

She is buried out across from the kennels.  Matt took the dogs out there to show them that she was no longer with us.  Polly tried to “wake her up”, Patsy just sniffed her and Sinatra just stared at the sky, refusing to look at her.  We took the girls out Monday night to show them.  Brenna kind of already knew what was going on, but she still didn’t understand how Lu was up in “Doggie Heaven” running with the other dogs if her body was buried in the ground.  She looked at Matt and asked, “But doesn’t she need her legs to run around?”  She’ll get it, one day, probably sooner than myself.  She is in a better place now, not suffering. 

Godspeed my Luci…..you have my heart forever big girl!

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We decided to put her on Benazepril to see if it will help preserve what kidney function she has left.  I know it seems like I am painting this horrible picture of Lu, and it’s really not that bad.  She still has her active moments, still barks when Matt isn’t going fast enough with the food bowl in the morning and still, occasionally, gets in bed with me.  The last one, about the bed, is more me than her.  I am really trying to get my allergies under control and sleeping next to a Saint Bernard at night doesn’t help at all.  I am also convinced that she doesn’t like our Sleep Number bed.  My number is 40 and I think she would like to be around 90.  She’s still my girl though!

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Sinatra and Patsy checked out well.  Patsy has kept her weight pretty much the same and Sinatra has dropped a little, but he’s always done that.  He’s like the king of yo-yo dieters.  He’s not at his all-time low, but he will be next month, when Polly comes into heat. 

Then there’s Luci.  We have known for a couple of months that Lu has lost some weight.  She’s always been on the heavier side, her highest at 178 pounds.  We really thought that she had lost 5 pounds, but when the scale came back at 158 pounds, Matt and the vet were shocked.  So came the discussion of what it could be.  Of course, cancer came up along with the side effects of Lyme Disease, which she was diagnosed with last summer.  He ran a bunch of bloodwork and called me at 8:00 pm Saturday night. 

Her liver and the cancer marker (alk phos enzyme) were fine.  But her kidneys are not.  Her creatinine is 2.8 and her albumin is low, which is an indicator of Nephropathy (due to the Lyme).  But he couldn’t make any treatment decisions until he ran her urine.  Matt dropped that off this morning and waited (2 hours with two kids- I give him credit because I wouldn’t have waited there, I would have been home waiting on the vet to call me) for the results in a packed office.  Basically, there was too much sediment in her urine due to a bacterial infection to get an accurate protein level.  Got all that?  We didn’t get the answer we were looking for, which was how much protein is she dumping into her urine.  Matt got a couple of days worth of Clavomax and a script for the rest and we have to redo the urine on July 11th. 

He did advise me to put her on a low protein diet.  We looked high and low yesterday at the dog food store and settled on Science Diet Large Breed Mature.  I think that’s what it is.  We have dropped her protein from 26% to 15%.  He said her appetite may increase.  I guess the higher protein is making her feel worse, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed! 

I call Lu the Queen of UTI’s because this is not the first time we have gone through this.  She went way downhill in 2005.  We came very close to putting her down because she wouldn’t walk.  The vets thought she had meningitis, but in actuality, it was a raging UTI!  Kind of like the time before and before.  She’s very weird the way her body reacts to things because her white count won’t peak until about 48 hours after you know she’s sick.  It’s usually a climbing thing, but with her, she does it with a bang!

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Donna (Lee) came up to wash her bitch, Tajjee one Saturday in March before a show. Tajjee is what I would call a “little bitch”. It’s not that she is lacking in substance, she is built like a Mack truck, but she is lacking in height for my personal taste. I feel like I have a lab running around when she’s in the house. I hate to be so discriminating, but that’s how I feel! So Donna comes in the house and Brenna goes running over to her and she stops dead in her tracks. She’s just looking at Tajjee, not quite sure what to make of her. Donna says, “Say hi to Tajjee, Brenna.” Brenna turns to me and says, “Mommy, why is she so small?” I almost rolled on the floor laughing and Donna still swears to this day that I actually put her up to saying that! And I didn’t!

And it’s very apparent that Brenna likes BIG bitches too!

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