Pullen Park Outing & Lucy's new Great Dane friend

Today, we took an outing to the lovely Pullen Park in downtown Raleigh with Lucy. It's really a park for families, rather than dog-lovers, but was still a fun outing with Lucy. Lucy made 1 new dog friend, a large great dane puppy named Dude. Check it out:

4 year anniversary of Lucy Adoption/Lucy's "birthday"!

I can't believe 4 years have passed already! It feels like Lucy has always been in my life on one hand and on the other hand, I can't believe that she's getting older and is now about 4.5 years old. We estimated that she was about 6 months old when we adopted her.

She has added this depth to my life - this other source of love and joy. Going for walks or hikes in the woods is simply so much more fun with Lucy since she gets so excited about all the new smells and seeing other dogs. She also loves meeting new people too and is very fond of two of our neighbors.

In terms of her personality, she feels as full of energy today as she did when she was a puppy. She's very playful and still will eat just about anything in sight (that seems remotely eatable). The only change is that it seems that she sleeps a little more than she used to, but I'm not sure if that's true. She has gotten a tiny bit more snuggly - namely at night and early in the morning we have the "Lucy snuggle". She likes to wake us up and run to the kitchen to the pantry and look up at the shelf where her food is as if saying with her eager eyes, "There it is! It's time for breakfast!"

And almost every morning, either Stuart or I say, "I wish I felt that awake this early in the morning!" And we both laugh. Lucy is also a champ at sleeping well, which Stuart attributes to her, "not having to worry about getting up for work in the morning, or paying bills."

Mother's Day Weekend

On Mother's Day this past weekend, I did a lot of thinking about mothers in general, my mother and Stuart's mother and if I'll ever be a mother. Having a dog like Lucy who is so wonderful at least makes me feel like a "doggy-mom" as I have to take care of her and love her so much. I know that having an actual child is much much more work though, based on close friends who have little ones at home.

The other day in People Magazine, some celebrity was interviewed about her relationship with her dog. It was one of the dancing with the stars ladies, but I forgot her name. She said that coming home to her dog every night was like,and I loosely quote, 'coming home to a 3 to 5 year old who is eager to see me.' I couldn't have said that better myself.

I spent Mother's day with my parents, and of course, with Lucy in tow. I took a few pictures and will upload them, esp the one of me, Lucy and our friend Maria and my mom:






Lucy's favorite (and newly replaced toy):



As one of my Mother's Day goodies to my mom, I bought a raffle ticket for the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Rotary Club's annual "Rubber Duck Race". Each ticket has a number and corresponds to a number on a big rubber duck. They dump the rubber ducks into part of the Eno River in Durham for a "race". The first 15 or so ducks are culled out of the water and those raffle ticket holders are eligible for some great prizes. When I bought the ticket, I got a mini duck which I wrapped up for my mom. I think I'll go to the event too. I asked specifically if dogs are allowed and the volunteer joked that each year someone's golden retriever jumps in the water and steals a rubber duck. For more information, check out this link.