
This is Lucy, Godzilla, Peanutbutter, Mustard, Brown Bear, Moose, Goose, Monster. This is her story:
When I was 20 I had to do something that, still to this point of my life, was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. My childhood, life-friend had become very old and started to suffer with large amounts of pain. His name was Rufus. He was a purebred Golden Retriever that my family got when I was 9 years old. He was simply amazing. I have more memories with Rufus than I do with any person I can think of. Letting him go was one of the saddest days of my life.


Thank god I no longer look like that! I was an ugly duckling. Just look at how handsome I am now. Lol

ANYWAYS…..
On my 21st birthday party my father Cletus and sister Kayla picked up a puppy brindle pitbull. Cletus called me on his way back into town to show me his new puppy and met me at my party. I instantly fell in love with that little ball of muscle. My mother Judith has named every single one of our pets and she did with this one, the name Lucy. Judith said the puppy reminded her of Lucille Ball because of her color…. Now I remember I Love Lucy as being in black and white, then later in technicolor. Brindle is a mix of dark brown, gold orange and red. I don’t see it Judith. Nonetheless Lucy was her name and it fit. Cletus made it clear to me that this puppy was his and not mine. He said I was not allowed to spend time with her alone so that she wouldn’t pick me as her best friend. Lucy had other plans in mind.

Not soon after Lucy became part of our family, she became a huge part in my life. I moved out of my parent’s house and into a shack with my friend Mike. Within a couple months Cletus gave Lucy to me. From that moment on, she was mine and I was hers. Rufus will never be replaced in my heart, but Lucy is the greatest dog/friend I’ve had.

Fast forward 3 yrs into the future in the month of May. I’m now in school and living in a new house with 4 roommates. All of them older than me, all of them jobless, motivation-less and not in school. They were, are losers. Luckily the house was huge with a nice yard in the back for Lucy to run around in and the garage was climate controlled so when I wasn’t home I kept her safe from them in there. One day I was out and about and put Lucy in the garage. Apparently one of my roommates thought Lucy shouldn’t be in the garage and put her in the backyard. Shortly after that roommate was about to leave the house and broke her key in the lock of the front door. She had to leave through the back to keep the front door locked. On her way out through the gate she opened it wide enough and long enough for Lucy to get out. Instead of going after her to bring her back to the house, my roommate went back inside to find my number to call me so I could come and find Lucy. This made me unbelievably angry. I was more than 30 miles from the house. My roommate was 5 feet from where she let Lucy out. I drove as fast as I possibly could back to the house. When I got there my roommate was sitting on the couch on her computer…. To tell you what happened next is a whole different story. I spent the next 6 hours searching for my dog until the sun gave up and darkness came over the night and my heart. Lucy was gone and there was nothing I could do about it.

3 months had passed. Not a single peep of where she could be. I had invited my old roommate Mike, from earlier, to come out for the weekend. After movie hopping all day we were making our way back to my house. For some reason I took a way home that I’ve never taken before through the country side. The sun had just fallen and the moon and headlights of cars were all that lit the roads. We came to a stop sign near and old postal office and in the corner of my right eye I saw a dark shadow moving across the intersection. I looked over to my right to make out this shadow and all that came out of my mouth was a silent cry, “Lucy”. I shook my head and yelled her name again, it was her. She was walking across the intersection like it was the day she was lost. Mike and I jumped out of the car and raced down the street screaming her name. Because we were so excited to see her, we scared her away into the open fields and into the dark. We jumped back into the car and went down every road for hours. Just as we were about to give up I was making a u-turn on a single lane country road. As I made the u-turn 3/4 of the way in I ran out of road and had to stop. As I stopped the headlights of the car shined on the dark open field in front of us. In the middle of our view Lucy was starring us straight in the eyes. We jumped out of the car again and again scared her away. She was gone, again.

2 weeks before Christmas I get a phone call while at work, it was Judith. She asked me how it would make me feel if she got a call that Lucy was found and was ok. My eyes instantly filled with tears. She gave me the phone number to a family that said they had her. I called them, got their address and left work. The family said Lucy had been hanging around their property for about 3 months. She would never get close enough for them to touch her but would always play with their dog. The told me that they also left food out for her because they knew she was hungry. Their son was able to pet her one day and got our phone number from her tags. As I drove into the neighborhood I noticed it was in the same area where we saw Lucy 3 months prior. It made me think deep down she knew it was me looking for her that day and didn’t want to leave the area. As I pulled up into their driveway Lucy recognized the noise of my car right away. She curiously made a large circle around the yard starring at me. I opened the door and stepped out saying her name as I started to cry. She heard my voice and bolted to the car. She leaped at least 5 feet away into my arms, licking me to death. I found her.
This was the greatest Christmas present I have ever received. Lucy is now completely spoiled and loved to no end.


All the presents you see here are all hers that Christmas and she deserved them.