Lucky is in Doggy Heaven.

Lucky

Age 1, ~2008 - April 02, 2009

How do you go on without your most perfect friend, protector, and confidant?

Lucky standing guard outside of my daughter's room

What do you say about the most wonderful dog in the world? How do you put into words how very much he meant to you, or how completely lost you feel now that he's gone. Lucky, our 1 year old German Shepherd was run down yesterday, April 2, 2009, by a person who can only be named as evil. He was ripped out of my and my childrens life without any warning, and I don't think that the tears have stopped since we found out.

Lucky came to us in March of 2008, a pound puppy that we rescued just hours before he was supposed to be "put down". We might have rescued him that day, but in more ways than I can ever express, he rescued me as well. As a single mom, Lucky almost stood in as a surrogate father for my children. He "guarded" them and me, as well as our home with a fierceness that was unbelievable for a dog his size. On several occassions in the last year, Lucky would run to the door barking and snarling, warning the prowler that we have been having trouble with that if they dared to come in they were going to have a major beat down waiting on them. I have no doubt, that had he not been here, my children and I would have become another horrible story of a family attacked.

Lucky slept with me every night. Even though that was his normal "bed", he always got up in the middle of the night and checked on my children. The crazy dog actually learned how to open bedroom doors with his front paws! After the rounds were made, he jumped back in bed with me and snuggled down for the night. I am a very sound sleeper, and in the morning I will sleep thru the alarm clock fairly regularly. When the clock went off, and I didn't get up, Lucky would lick me in the face until I got up and got moving. Once I was awake, he would make his way to my childrens rooms and get them up as well. Needless to say, I slept thru the clock this morning, and had to call next door to my parents to get my mom to come down and help me get the children off to school.

I have suffered with severe migraines for years. Lucky was almost like a painkiller for them. He seemed to know when I was hurting and would lay across my back and lick the back of my neck till I started to relax enough for the pain to let up. Needless to say, i've had a migraine ever since he was killed and narcotic painkillers just aren't doing the trick.

I wish that I could understand the evil that makes men destroy defenseless animals. I have to admit that I'm blaming myself for his death. If I had only put him in the car with us when I took the kids to school, then he wouldn't have been here to be mowed down intentionally. I don't know if I can ever forgive myself for letting him down that way. It's a sick fact that in our society, animals have less rights than are given to common criminals. We all need to work to make that fact a non existant reality.

Lucky has touched our lives in so many wonderful ways, I'm still looking for him to come bounding in the door and land on the ottoman that he had claimed as his own. I can't bring myself to remove his food bowl, put away his toys or remove the other things that he loved so much. Somehow that will make it seem that he's really gone, and I just can't seem to wrap my head around that piece of information.

Because of his size, I had to take him to the vet to have him cremated.I couldn't physically dig a whole to bury him in. Unfortunately, with the cost of the cremation, I was unable to have his ashes returned to me...that was an additional 200 dollars, and I just didn't have the extra money. I can't help but feel like I let him down by letting the vet dispose fo his remains. I hope he doesn't feel like we didn't want him. I hope that he understands that we miss him desperately.

Lucky, to you, thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for always loving us so much more than we could have ever loved you, and for never letting us forget that we were the center of your world. A friend gave me a copy of the poem "Rainbow Bridge" today, and I pray with all of my heart that it exist. If it does, we will see you again one day, and we will cross into heaven together. Until then my angel, continue to watch over us, and know that we will never forget you or all that you gave to us.