Dear Lucy,
Three years ago today we met you for the very first time, and brought you home to live with us. The search for our new family member had started weeks prior to meeting you, at the local animal shelters. We knew we wanted to find a dog who really, really needed a good home and family to love them. I remember crying and crying as we walked down the rows of kennels, looking in to the sad eyes of the homeless dogs who were awaiting adoption. It was so hard to see all those sweet and innocent faces and know we could only choose one to bring home. We met with several sweet dogs during our visits, but knew we hadn't yet found "the one" for us. We started looking on websites for dogs in need of a home, and came across your photo on one of the shelters web pages. Both your Dad and I agreed we definitely needed to meet you, you were so cute! At the time, you were living with a foster Mom and some other dogs due to "not doing well" in the shelter environment. I remember driving over to meet you. We pulled into the foster Mom's driveway, and there you were staring at us through the glass front door. I remember that moment vividly. Some may say this sounds silly, but it was at that instant I knew you were coming home with us.
I fell in love with you the instant I saw you. It took you a little bit to warm up to us, you didn't want to play and cuddle immediately and did a good job of keeping up your guard. You were easily persuaded with some yummy treats though, but strangely you didn't want to eat them. You took every treat and tried to hide it in the dog bed, or couch, or pile of blankets on the floor. Your foster mom said you did that a lot, that you were trying to hide the treats from the other dogs who were living with her! (As a side note, after you settled in with us you stopped hiding the treats when you discovered that no other dogs were going to try and take them away from you.) We decided to take you on a walk around her neighborhood and try to get to know you a little better. Both your Dad and I agreed that we loved you immediately and that we wanted to give you the best home that we possibly could. We had to make the adoption official back at the shelter, and met you and your foster Mom there to fill out the paperwork. It broke my heart to watch her say goodbye to you, she kissed you on the head and walked out the door with tears in her eyes saying this was the only bad thing about fostering dogs, that it was so hard to say goodbye. I sent her a nice Christmas card that year with our family photo so she could see how you were doing and also thank her for taking great care of you while you were "between homes."
After the adoption we put you through a rather stressful afternoon! We had to stop by the vet clinic on the way home for a check-up and final round of shots. They said you looked great, despite having being brought into the shelter weeks earlier covered in fur mats and being clearly not well taken care of. You weighed 28 lbs and they estimated your age to be around 10 months. After the vets office we had to stop by the pet store as we had nothing at home for a dog! We spoiled you with a new collar, leash, bed, toys, and treats. You didn't seem too interested at that point in picking anything out for yourself, you had started to become a bit nervous after such a hectic day. We bought everything we could think of that a new dog needs, and headed home to introduce you to the other family members... The cats!
You had lived with cats at the foster mom's house, but our cats had never been around a dog before. You really did great with the kitties, but it took them a good couple of weeks to warm up to you. Today, I would call us one big happy family but you guys certainly don't ever go as far as cuddle sessions together, that's for sure! I remember the first few nights home with you. We had brand new carpet upstairs in the bedrooms, and not being sure about your potty training status decided to play it safe and keep you off of them when we could not supervise you at night. We decided it would be best to put you in the laundry room, which had puppy-safe linoleum flooring, with your bed, toys, and water bowl during the nighttime hours. Well, let's just say you had a different idea of where you wanted to spend the night! You yelped and cried and barked as soon as you were put in there alone (and I don't blame you - who wants to be alone in the laundry room all night?!) I remember one night very clearly, standing there in our PJ's, your dad and I looking at each other clueless as to what to do with you. It was very late at night and you wouldn't stop crying and barking no matter what we did. We were actually concerned that the neighbors might hear you! I remember putting peanut butter (which we quickly learned was one of your favorite things) inside a rubber kong toy to try and keep you occupied so you would hopefully settle down and sleep a bit. Nothing really worked though and we struggled through several nights of loud puppy yelps, using ear plugs to help us sleep.
Finally we gave up and decided to trust you, it seemed as though you were house trained and figured taking the chance of ending up with pee on the carpet would be worth being able to sleep at night if it kept you quiet to be with us upstairs. Silly us, from the very first night we let you upstairs you did nothing except sleep on the floor near the foot of the bed. You just wanted to be with your "pack" and were trying to tell us this the whole time. Sorry it took us so long to get that message!
Even though next month our lives are all about to change drastically with the arrival of a new (human) family member, you should know that you are as much a part of this family as you always have been, and we will always consider you our "first" baby.
Love,
Mom
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