Lula
Lula came into my life when I had just moved into my very first apartment by myself 10 1/2 years ago. I was looking at an animal shelter in Plano just days after moving in. I wasn't ready to adopt just yet, but thought I'd just look. But of course, I saw Lula and I loved her right away. Hesitant to adopt right away, I gave them my number and asked that they call me if she gets adopted. The next day they called. But she wasn't going to be adopted, she was scheduled to be euthanized instead. She had kennel cough, intestinal worms and was a pit bull mix that was just big enough to not be an easily adoptable puppy. Needless to say, I adopted her right away! That day I took her to our brand-new apartment which she promptly began to destroy.
This sweet girl has been by my side from the very first day of my adult life. She was introduced to my future husband and her future Dad a year later and she loved him right away; so I married him a few years later :) ! She was with me when I moved to Denton to finish college, she has traveled with us on road trips to my husband’s family cabin, which she loves the colder weather and all the attention from family. She has a Christmas stocking hanging not only in our house, but at my parents’ house too. She sleeps right in between us at the foot of our bed. For over a decade, I have been talking to her and singing to her while cooking, cleaning, driving, doing homework and working from home. She is my shadow and the big, warm, 75-pound weighted blanked that lays on my legs.
Earlier this year she started to limp, so we took her into our vet who gave her a prescription arthritis medicine. When it didn't seem to get better (but in fact worse), we took her back in. After a couple of subsequent visits, we had x-rays done. By this time, she was barely putting weight on her front leg. The results that Lula had osteosarcoma hit us like a ton of bricks – we wish we’d have had x-rays done sooner. Our poor girl was in a lot of pain and we wanted to do whatever we could to get our happy little shadow back. We talked with family and looked at our savings and made a plan to pay for her amputation, but the chemo was a whole other cost and not a small one. My husband, Matt, looked into ways that we could make this work financially. That's when he found Dogslife. We know she isn't going to live forever, but we couldn't be more grateful for every moment we have been given through Dogslife. It's been a little over a month since her surgery and she is starting to get back to her happy, friendly self - just with a little extra hop in her step.
- Megan and Matt (December 2019)