Lucky Dorrell 2006 - 2022

We found her -- or she found us -- on New Year's Eve, 2008 while walking our Teddi.  Lucky always liked dogs better than people and she was very enamored of Teddi, so she followed us for a few blocks but didn't let us get too close.  We lived in West U in a 4-story condo at the time and Mrs. Did worked with her for three hours, finally getting a leash on and up the elevator.  It was a year before Lucky let me pet her.  We decided she must have been mistreated by a man.

She was a Lab pit mix and you can perhaps see her terrific Cleopatra-Queen-of-the-Nile eyeliner in these photos.

She was living behind a dumpster next to a Chinese restaurant, we learned later from someone while on a walk with her.  She had a bloody tail tip and was low-positive for heart worms by the time we got her to the vet.  She had a lot of fear all her life, which translated into aggression.  She jumped on a guy at the condo coming out of the elevator and tore his jacket, which we paid to fix.  She bit a handler at Rover Oaks.  When we took her to the dog park she lost her mind, barking incessantly at other dogs and chasing them and annoying the other dog owners.  We'd pump her with Benadryl beforehand but that didn't faze her in the slightest.  It was the same at the PetsHotel.  She couldn't do doggie daycare because of her fixations on other dogs.  Once she got bit on the muzzle by a dog she was bothering and they had to take her over to the Banfield people for a couple of stitches.

She was not drama-free.  But she was a great watchdog and she loved her sisters and her Mommy.  And she became a very calm, relaxed, happy dog in her dotage.

Her hip finally gave out a few weeks ago and she was just dragging herself around, mostly unable to walk or even stand at the end.  So we gave her a great send-off, with burgers and chicken and ice cream the past couple of days, and when the vet came to the house this morning we set up her bed outside in the sunshine, which she loved to lie in, and said goodbye.

Now she's with Holly, over the Rainbow Bridge, and she's jumping and running without any pain and they're both together and happy.

She was a good, good, dog.

I'll have the regular Wrangle tomorrow.