So I had to say goodbye to Lulu last week. She got adopted by a good family, I hope.
For the last few months I have been volunteering at our new local animal shelter, and for as long as I have worked there, Lulu has been a resident. She was in foster care before the shelter building opened in the fall, and she's only 11 months old. I fell in love with her the first time I saw her, her beautiful red and white markings, her long floppy, silky ears, her lithe, bouncy body and her sweet nature.
Lulu is an English coonhound and she is beautiful. None of her pictures really captured her eager, friendly, bright spirit. I could never understand why she lingered so long in the shelter. Hunters didn't want her because she'd been spayed. "If the dog's a good hunter, you want to breed it," they said. Families didn't want her because she's a hound dog, and apparently hounds don't make good pets..?
Well, finally someone did want her, and he wanted her so much that he drove over a hundred miles to get her - okay so that doesn't sound like a lot, but he drove the miles the day after a blizzard, in which travel was not advised. The 2+ hour trip took about 4 hours. Nasty, icy, slippery, snow covered, ground blizzards, cars and trucks in the ditch type travel. For a dog. So that's a comfort to me. He really wanted this dog. My Lulu.
So I am happy for Lulu, but also a little sad for me. If I hadn't already had 6 dogs, I would have seriously considered adding Lulu to my family. There was just something about her that went straight to my heart. Now when I drive out to the shelter, and I see the dogs bouncing around in their kennels and my eyes immediately start to search for that little red and white, floppy-eared form, I have to stop and remind myself: she's not there. She's home now. She's home.
Bye bye Lulu. Be a good girl and have a wonderful life.
(be sure to click the link on Lulu's name, and watch the video of this happy girl.)
