Our previous Lab, Holly, had passed at 15 years of age leaving me with an empty spot to dole out my love daily. She was with me during high school, undergraduate school, and all the way beyond graduate school. Needless to say, she had stolen my heart and been my shoulder to cry on at many times throughout our 15 years together. Holly's death left me very concerned whether I could ever love another furry friend quite as much as the depths of my love for her. Her death was very peaceful and she never suffered, but I would have given my very own life if only she could have stayed on to teach others about how deep her love was for anyone and everyone who needed her!
After nearly a year of coming home to a quiet house with no one to run up and welcome me home with a toy and kiss to share, I decided I needed to fill the void that was present. So, I reassured myself that there would never be another Holly, but there might be some different attributes that I could come to love in another furry friend. Deciding on a name was no chore as I had already decided to name the pup after Holly's favorite fleece toy goose, who we always referred to as "Lucy Goose". Thus we decided to register her as Little Miss Ladybug Lucy Lu. Choosing the pup was a little harder as there were two black females. I chose the one who seemed to hold the most interest in being with me and playing. In retrospect, I have no doubt that I made the right choice, although it did cross my mind to take them both home!
Lucy slept all the way from Mineola without so much as a whimper. She never cried for her furry family, although the first night was most interesting as I woke to find her crouched at the top of a baby bouncer and gracefully swaying in the air! Lucy slept cradled in the vet tech's arms through her puppy examination at the vet's office and thus has gained an endearing friend who always welcomes the opportunity to care for her when she is at the vet's office and has come to the house occasionally to trim her nails and spoil her!
Lucy quickly began demonstrating her own unique and endearing personality quirks that continue to this day. For instance, she is one of the only dogs that I know that actually yawns aloud with a human like voice! She also has a cute habit of howling to the neighbor dogs when we take her out at night. She never howls during the day, but she bays nearly every night as if to call out goodnight at "The Walton's" house to her friends next door as we have Yellow Labs on each side of us.
As the seasons changed we were quickly learning new fun things to do together such as traipsing through the leaves in the fall, playing soccer and frisbee in the winter, and retrieving every stick in the yard during the summer. Lucy also became very fond of caring for Gladney Center babies as my mother cares for Lucy while I'm at work and does volunteer work to care for infants until legal paperwork is completed for the babies to be adopted. My mother also does the bookkeeping for their business. Lucy quickly learned to go and sit at mom's feet while she was working on the computer or feeding a baby.
She also learned quickly that little kids are actually a lot more fun than us grownups. She has always been gentle and kind to my 3 year-old niece and 1 year and 7 year-old nephews who she loves traveling to visit in Oklahoma. She also loves to just lay and watch the neighbors' kids playing basketball and riding their bikes. She literally stares a hole through them wishing that they would come her way for a little fun!
Lucy quickly learned all the party tricks of sit, stay, come, down, beg, shake hands, shake other hand, high five, wait for treat, gimme a kiss, roll over, hide and seek, and the list goes on! Of course the most shocking thing for us was the fact that Lucy had not chewed us out of house and home like our previous puppy Labs which had chewed sofas, shoes, boat wires, lawn mower belts, carpet, etc. The only thing that Lucy has wrongfully chewed to date is a sorry-looking houseplant that needed to be put out of its misery.
Unfortunately, at 7 months of age Lucy started giving us little scares here and there as she would stop walking or running and hold her rear leg from the ground. When we went to check on her she would accept the loving attention, but never showed any signs of having any tenderness to be identified. This went on for a couple of weeks and would vanish almost as quickly as it came on, with each episode lasting less than three minutes and sometimes going weeks between episodes. When I took her to the vet's office, they did some x-rays as they were concerned about her hips and cruciate ligaments based on the lameness that she was displaying. The x-rays revealed that her hips looked fine, so we decided to reduce running and jumping activities to allow the ACL's time to repair, as we felt certain she didn't have a complete tear due to the short stints of occurrence.
Lucy and I had started training with Good Dog School shortly after her symptoms first appeared. Richard would probably attest to the fact that Lucy appeared to be very "obstinate" during the first session, as she was the queen who had never been asked to do anything on pavement other than walk! However, I have to say that by the second week most people would have suspected that I switched dogs or something, as she was quickly trying hard to do what I asked even though she still doesn't particularly like pavement for laying down! Lucy and I continued to learn new skills each week at the training classes, but Lucy was starting to have lame episodes even when she just went to sit, although I know she did try very hard to do it for my sake.
It was nearly a month after the x-rays that Lucy was scheduled for cruciate surgeries as both legs were being affected and the symptoms were getting much worse. Our vet referred us to Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center in order to get a second opinion and to ease all the concerns I had about the surgery. In Dallas, Lucy was seen by Dr. Darryl McDonald, who gave her a new diagnosis within the first five minutes as having a femur deformity. Of course, you can imagine my state of shock as I had plotted out about 20+ questions regarding cruciate surgeries! To ease my concern of how we could have the wrong diagnosis, Dr. McDonald gave me his 100% certainty guarantee that her cruciates were not the underlying problem. He spent a lot of time with us reviewing the x-rays and what needed to be done to correct her problem. I was a little concerned as my new hero vet was not the one who would be performing the surgery, as there was only one person in their office of seven doctors who performs this type of surgery, Dr. Robert Radasch.
In a nutshell, Lucy had very curved femur bones which caused the knee caps to go off center and dislocate very easily. The surgery being recommended was a very new technique with absolutely no documented literature, but it was very comforting to hear the prognosis and to be told the risks for future complications. I really didn't feel that there was any other choice than to move forward with addressing her problems as she had never so much as whimpered, but appeared to be in obvious discomfort as she could barely walk without her kneecaps slipping out! We scheduled her for her first surgery two weeks later at their earliest opening.
Lucy's first surgery involved correcting the right leg. The surgery consisted of going in and removing a wedge-shape section of bone from the femur and then putting in metal plates to help fuse the bone and allow it to grow in a straight manner. I was able to pick Lucy up the following day, and was shocked when she actually walked out in her own cast. I had pictured carrying her to the car and her being totally immobile. As a matter of fact, when they went back to get her you could hear them telling her to slow down as she raced to get to me! I did receive some bad news as Dr. Radasch called prior to the actual surgery and reported that he had found that there was some laxity in the hip joints which could be early signs of hip dysplasia. However, there was also some discussion that this could be due to her compensation through the hip joints to take some weight out of the knee joints.
The real test would come during the next 8 weeks of healing, as she was not to run or jump (two of her favorite things) and was to take it easy. Many of you might appreciate what a task it was to keep a Lab puppy content without much activity! Yes, that means no retrieving, no walking, no jumping, no swimming, nothing, nothing, nothing! We went stir crazy together during this time period! Her cast was removed after just 5 days, even though she had already chewed the foot out after the first couple of days, and the stitches were removed at about 10 days. My family agrees that maybe that cast was intended to slow her down and impede any quick movement, because once that cast was off she wanted to get going. Oh how she pouted when I refused to throw the ball or to let her go on her daily walk! It was just miserable and I spent most of my time trying to be away from home so that she wasn't so eager to play!
When I spoke with Dr. Radasch midway through the first surgery healing cycle, we decided to schedule her for x-rays at the 8-week point of her recovery to check the progress of the bone healing. We also planned the next surgery to occur that same day if the leg looked like it was healing well. Unfortunately, we weren't able to proceed that day with the next surgery, not so much because of concerns about healing progress, but because she had a mild staph infection on her tummy. We proceeded to treat the infection with antibiotics and a special shampoo regimen, and we set another appointment for the following week. One week later, the infection was cleared and they proceeded with correcting the left leg.
The second surgery was a little less stressful for me as I had seen the substantial relief resulting from the first procedure. Of course, the eight-week healing period was just as trying, but we found new games to play as Lucy would lay and I would roll the ball to her and she would bat it back at me with her nose. During the time of her recovery, I had begun studying hip dysplasia and reading holistic veterinary medicine books relating to diet. She was more than happy to eat the apples and carrots which I added to her diet. If anything, I was the one reluctant to give those things as we had avoided giving her any human edibles! Of course, my deepest hope is that any of the laxity in the hip joints is due to her need to compensate for the weakness she experienced in the knees.
At her eight-week follow-up from the second surgery, all looked well. I couldn't be more pleased with my choice to proceed with the surgeries. I can't imagine that she could have lived a life of any quality otherwise. Of course, there are some people who think I'm out of my mind to have made such a financial investment to help my dearest friend, but I will never question whether I did the right thing as she brings so much joy to my life on a daily basis.
Lucy and I are now back in training with Good Dog School and so happy to be there with such a caring group of instructors who have helped us to deepen our relationship through the time we spend together. I had spoken with some other training groups in the past but wasn't impressed with their philosophy and results I had seen with other friends' pets who seem frightened and militant in their relationship. Chuck, Claudia, and Richard have been so helpful in sharing information and giving encouragement. I feel that their deep concern for Lucy's recovery has been very sincere. Likewise, their help has made me more comfortable in handling my 73-pound black furry bundle of energy!
Lucy still looks like a "hoodlum/banshee" when she gets out of the car on Monday nights to attend training, but she is starting to get back into the swing of paying attention and having fun while learning. Our first night back was rather embarrassing for me as Lucy has always been a high energy friend and I was asked the first night if she hadn't had any exercise that day. However, we had already been outside playing frisbee and had gone for a 30-minute walk prior to class.
Needless to say, Lucy is doing well and seems to be comfortable with her physical ability as she loves to run and jump to catch frisbees and chase down balls and sticks. She really enjoys playing with her furry friends next door, and she loves her evening exploratory walks in the neighborhood! She does still get sore from time-to-time when she overdoes it, but she usually seems to bounce right back after a good night's rest.
The biggest risk for Lucy now is arthritis. We all joke that she just had to imitate me as I have had surgery to fuse my L5-S1 disc with metal hardware! I think we were destined to be together and I'm glad that her recovery has been so successful to this point. I would highly recommend the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center to anyone with serious pet health complications. They only accept patients by referral from other veterinarians, but the place truly looks like a hospital for humans rather than an animal hospital, as there are several floors and offices dedicated to working with different medical specialties. I have been extremely pleased with the care she has received and the ability to speak with the doctors within a reasonable time frame when there are questions or concerns. As a matter of fact, Dr. Radasch just recently inquired about Lucy's recovery as he has another Lab with similar complications and wanted to share our experience with that family.
As I told you in the beginning, I wasn't sure if I could ever love another Lab as much as my Holly, but I'm loving Lucy just as much. I don't think I could have found another Lab quite as similar to my Holly as Lucy has become. My family has decided that our dogs must be a reflection of the people that raise them as there is surely little chance that we could have stumbled upon two such similar dogs from different lineage. Holly would be very proud that Lucy was given the name of her most loved toy and that I'm able to have a companion to share so much joy with. I do love Lucy and look forward to many new fun adventures with her.