LuLu (4/12)

Let me start off telling the story of our first failure, LuLu. My two daughters and I drove to Salinas to pull a basset who was being held there in protective custody for animal cruelty. She was in very rough shape. They had just completed a pyometra spay and pulled an upper canine which was broken and appeared to have been hit or kicked. They gave us the tooth in a plastic bag in case we could ever find whoever left her by the side of the road in that condition, but we never did. Poor LuLu came out wearing a cone of shame and she was so weak she couldn’t lift her head with the cone on. I removed it right there in the lobby of the shelter over everyone’s objections and put my arms around her and promised her that nobody would ever be mean to her again. She was so scared, she wouldn’t even accept the pastrami I had brought with me to introduce myself. We loaded her into the back seat of the car next to my 12 year old daughter Natalie and drove the hour home to Campbell and introduced her to my two resident dogs (Cyrus the lab and Snoopy the basset). She was so skinny you could see every verebrae in her spine and every rib. She weighed 42 lbs (she weights 56 lbs now and is still a bit thin). She had had many, many litters and her nipples literally dragged on the ground. She had scars on her face and ears and was filthy and stinky and terrified. Her toe nails were over 4 inches long and she couldn’t walk because of them. After they were trimmed her feet took months to start to look normal, at first the vet said they may always be deformed because the ligaments had been stretched so much. At that time there was nothing pretty about LuLu but her soul. She was supposed to be a foster but this gem of a lady basset was going NOWHERE. Sweet and gentle and caring through it all she never ever has done a mean thing to anyone, man or beast. She let me clean out her ears. She let the vet examine her and trim her toe nails. After the vet said we could she let me bathe her. She let me pick her up and she let me hug her and she did everything we asked of her. She was on canned food for a while but over time she switched to kibble and she ate what we asked her to eat. She slept where we asked her to sleep (which was on a dog bed on the floor at first). Over a few months LuLu slowly put on the weight she needed. Her coat became soft and started to shine She fell in love with our family. Strangers stopped being horrified by her appearance and instead started saying how cute she was. My husband was going through chemo at the time and she would lay there in bed with him while he was going through the worst of it. Sometimes I would go in there and he would just be holding her in a death grip ….. he might not even be awake, LuLu was though and she’d just lay there and comfort him, for hours if he needed her to. LuLu loves my daughters and my dogs and me. She is the sweetest, kindest, gentlest soul I have ever met. When we lost our lab Cyrus on 8/1 (he went in his sleep) she assumed the alpha role in our pack gracefully. She’s our pride and joy. In her success story photo, she is relaxing in my reading chair in all her glory. Dale & family