Written by David:
I remember the first time I saw Lulu. It was about 8 years ago at the pet store. Heather had seen her there previously and thought she was the wierdest looking puppy she had ever seen with short legs, big paws, big ears and a missing tail.

I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to get a dog but after driving around and talking about possbile pet names we decided to go back to the pet store to see her again. I asked one of the pet store employees if they could take her out of the cage and they handed her to me. She was so tiny and her fur was so soft. You could just tell that she had a great little personality. Lulu won me over and we took her home that day. She became a part of our family.

Lulu was the sweetest dog with such a great personality and calm demeanor. I used to take her to work with me everyday and she would just hang out in the office and contently lay by my chair as I worked. She was much loved by everyone who came in contact with her because she was so quiet and well behaved.

She loved to go on walks at the beach and at Runyon Canyon. She would always go on ahead a little bit then stop and look back making sure we were following her. She would also herd us together nipping at our heels making sure we stayed together as a pack. Lulu’s been a big part of our life. She was there through the wedding planning and she was at the door and happy to see us when we returned from our 2-week honeymoon in Tahiti.

Lulu was with us when we moved from our apartment to our house. She’s been through all the restoration process living with us in the sawdust and giving cheer to all our various contractors. Lulu also got to travel with us over two different holidays – one year going to visit my parents in snowy Utah, and another time she got to visit the farm in Indiana.

She was always so sweet, happy and healthy. That’s why it was such a shock to us to find out Thursday night in the animal critical care center that she had a tumor that had burst and was bleeding into her abdomin. Lulu was even just at the vet a few days earlier because we thought she might have back problems and there was no indication then that there was anything else wrong with her.

Thursday night Lulu went into shock because of the tumor and the doctor said that her vital signs were so low they were worried that they might not be able to keep her stabilized through the night for emergency surgery the next day. So we were faced with a decision that we didn’t want to make: either try to put her through surgery and see if they could remove the cancer cells and to see if the cancer had spread, or to put her to sleep.

Surgery is no guarantee which we have found out in the past putting one of our cats through two major surgeries trying to remove a cancerous tumor – which turned out to be unsuccessful. We didn’t want to put Lulu through all that pain and suffering. She was such a sweet dog. So Thursday night we made the hardest decision to say our final goodbyes as she gently fell asleep and through the tears I whispered in her ear “We love you baby girl.”

We miss her so much. The house isn’t the same without her.

Lulu, we love you.