The Growing Caldwell Family

 We celebrated Lucy's 16th birthday on February 13. What a gift to have 16 years!  Deconstructed peanut butter and jelly as a birthday treat! She loved the peanut butter so much! We began to realize that Lucy was having many accidents in the house. Some we found quickly and others only became noticeable later. Unsure if it was dementia or painful joints keeping her from going outside, we decided this would be comfortable and help us stay on top of accidents.  We called it her memory care and sometimes she minded being there and sometimes she didn't. It definitely gave us more time taking her out on walks and just to be outside for a while.  Still, her aging was becoming very noticeable as she grew thin.  With no real health problems, we expected she would be with us for some time. The week before Easter she began to have frequent diarrhea and gave up eating and drank little. A trip to the vet gave us prescriptions to help the diarrhea that she refused to take. W...

Lucy turned 15 on February 13. We typically give her extra treats or a special meal on her birthday, but 15 felt like such a milestone that we needed to celebrate with a party, a  quinceañera! Lucy is not a fan of other dogs, so we didn't invite them, but we did invite some of her favorite humans! ! These are definitely her two favorite people. They show her so much affection and think about her often! Since Lucy loves peanut butter, we did peanut butter frosting on the cupcakes and a special meat cake with peanut butter between the layers for Lucy! Being so close to Valentine's Day we went with a Valentine theme with a few frenchies thrown in Lucy definitely loved all the special attention! The kids loved playing in the bouncy house! When it was time to sing Happy Birthday, she acted like she knew what to do! I think she definitely felt the love and enjoyed all the attention! It was a fun afternoon and I am so glad we gave Lucy this celebration. She entertains us every day and...

The kids have really come to love and care so much for Lucy. They both have wanted Lucy to sleep in their bed. This isn't something Lucy has done, but Charlie wore us down and was so tickled to have her sleep with him! She stayed with him until early morning when he let her out of his room and went back to sleep himself!  

 Sarah Graves loves Lucy. She takes care of her and shows her so much attention. I fully believe that it is this care and attention that keeps Lucy doing so well at almost 14 years old. 

After school and work are finished, we have enjoyed taking advantage of the gorgeous spring weather and going for a walk or bike ride.  The kids have enjoyed being able to walk Lucy. To my surprise, she is thrilled to go out for a walk! I thought that at her age she would find a longer walk too difficult, but she gets a smile and runs for the door when she sees us getting ready to go. It is so sweet to see the kids caring about her and making a real effort to notice her and her needs. 

There are moments when Charlie is so very loving to Lucy.  As she gets older, he becomes more tender with her. He has a loving heart.

Lucy was all smiles when she received her blessing from Reverend Ashley.  At nearly 12 years old, Lucy is still a happy, vibrant girl. She naps more and her vision and hearing aren't as good, but she loves people and enjoys every opportunity for affection.

Lucy celebrated her 10th birthday! She is still spry and full of enthusiasm for stray leaves, squirrels, and people who dare walk past her house! She is sweet with the kids and has a special fondness for them at mealtime!  I made Lucy a special treat - a meat cake! I made hamburger patties and put peanut butter as the "icing"! It was a hit with Lucy!

Lucy rarely gets to be the center of attention anymore, but on a beautiful fall evening she had her chance. No one else wanted to go for a walk but Lucy was more than eager. We had a great time together. It reminded me of taking her out before the kids came along. She gave me a look and we took off running until we were both panting!  She came home tired and smiling.

In the midst of our snow days Lucy turned 7!  What better way for her to celebrate than having her people at home with her! Sarah Graves treated her to a spoonful of peanut butter as a special treat!

Today is Lucy's 6th birthday!   Lucy keeps us all alerted to any squirrels, leaves, or people passing by!  She is curious about the tiny humans that inhabit our home and enjoys kissing them when possible!  SG is not fond of these kisses and Charlie doesn't seem to notice them.  SG would prefer to pet Lucy with her foot and have no other contact than that!  She likes to give Lucy treats, but doesn't want Lucy to touch her!  Charlie is just now starting to notice Lucy and so far seems in different to her.   Aside from bothering our neighbor with her barking during the day, Lucy really doesn't bother anyone and the older she gets, the more she prefers to keep to herself.  She used to enjoy cuddling up next to me while I watched TV, but she doesn't come anywhere near the sofa while I am watching TV these days.  She prefers to lay on her bed and snooze or patrol her yard.   Lucy does very much enjoy her weekly trip to doggie daycare ...

Lucy had her surgery yesterday and we are so thankful that all went well.  I dropped her off before work and waited and waited to hear how it went.  Finally, I got a call in the afternoon that the surgery was finished and she was in recovery.  Her vet performed the eye lift procedure on both eyes, removed a wart growing in her mouth, and another wart that I noticed that morning on her side.  Aaron picked Lucy up after work and Sarah Graves has been so sweet to her.  She told me about Lucy's bobo, signed to me that it hurt, and then would pet her so gently and kept signing that she had to be gentle.  Sarah Graves really is fond of Lucy. Lucy has been doing very well.  She acts a little lethargic, but she hasn't complained about discomfort and seems to feel okay.  She has eaten a little.  Her biggest complaint is probably that she cannot go outside unsupervised for a while for fear that something will get in her eye.  She loves to be in h...

Poor Lucy.  She went to the vet last week and Aaron asked about some tear stains that she has on her face.  The vet checked it out and thought that her eyelid was a little curled causing her eyelashes to rub against her eye and for her to produce more tears.  Sometimes this is caused by allergies, but the vet isn't sure what caused it for Lucy.  He recommended an eye specialist and we are fortunate to have one not far from us.  Aaron took her yesterday and the specialist confirmed our vet's opinion that she essentially needs an eye lift procedure to keep her eyelid from rubbing against her eye.  The surgery will require her to wear a halo collar for a few weeks while it heals, but hopefully that will take care of the issue.   Our vet also noticed that Lucy has a wart growing in her mouth.  Apparently, this is just something that happens sometimes.  He said that he can likely remove it while she is sedated for the eye surgery.  Poor...

Now that Sarah Graves is very mobile she spends a lot of time on the floor, which has made us realize that Lucy does not respect her and Lucy's problem of jumping on people is magnified when the person is very small.  We have struggled with what to do and tried to teach Lucy not to jump on Sarah Graves, but it hasn't worked.  So, I reached out to Atlanta Dog Trainer  who we have worked with in the past and had success.  I have enjoyed working with them because they seem to understand that Lucy is stubborn, but she is capable of learning.  We worked with another trainer at PetSmart who frequently dismissed her stubborness for the fact that she is a bulldog and felt we should not expect anything more from her.  Trish, the trainer who came today, was confident that Lucy is capable of learning not to jump on people, but we have to be stronger than she is.  Lucy is pretty strong willed.  I hope we are stronger than she is. Trish's instructions f...