Goodbye to Sweet Little Lizzy

In April, we had to say goodbye to our sweet little Lizzy Dog and have her put to sleep.  This was a very difficult decision for us to make and we were both heart-broken.  But, she had become very sick and was in renal failure, so there was no other option.  It has taken me all this time to get to the point where I felt I could write this blog entry in memory of her.  It is something that is healing for me and may be of some consolation to others who have lost beloved pets.

Lizzy came to us in the fall of 2004, when we lived in town.  We found her roaming our neighborhood one day.  She appeared to be a full-blooded beagle and was very friendly, so  I was sure someone owned her.  Since I feared she would get run over, I put her in our fenced back yard until I could find her owner.  However, even though we put an ad in the paper and reported that we had found her to the local shelter, nobody ever claimed her.

It was just as well, though, because I've always called her our little "angel dog".  You see, we found Lizzy about a month before we had to have our beloved dog, Lucy, who had been with us for 15 years, put to sleep.  I felt like God sent Lizzy to us to help fill the void that Lucy's death created in our lives. 

We found that owning a hound was quite different.  Alongside the Bloodhound and Basset Hound, Beagles have one of the best developed senses of smell of any dog.  And, Lizzy would follow her nose anywhere!  Here is an entry I wrote about her following her nose, called "Good Dog, Bad Dog".

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2011/11/lizzy-dog.html

Even when she was inside the house, her nose alerted her to critters outside, like this.

Lizzy also had the typical hound bark, although you couldn't call it a bark.  I read somewhere that beagles have "the melodious voice of the hound".  And, that was certainly the case with Lizzy.  When she and the other dogs were outside barking at something, there was no mistaking which one was Lizzy!

Over the years since I started this blog, I've written several entries about her.  There is this one about her and our compost pile which she loved to investigate.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2010/11/compost-dog.html

And, here is one about her and Sally sniffing out a mouse in some tall grass.  Lizzy did most of the "sniffing" while Sally supervised.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2010/11/team-tag.html

Lizzy was the gentlest dog I've ever known.  She never tried to bite anyone.  Never even growled at anyone as far as I know.  The grandkids loved to play with her and she tolerated it with dignity.

The only time I knew her to be aggressive at all was with other dogs when she felt they might eat her food.  Even if she didn't want to eat the food herself, she would lay beside her food bowl and "guard" it to make sure Sally didn't get it!

We'll always hold a special place in our hearts for you Lizzy Dog.  If heaven is a perfect place, then I know you'll be there waiting for us.