Lacey – Love

We lost our beautiful collie today.  My heart is breaking into a million little pieces.  We got Lacey about nine and half years ago.  I had put an ad on Craigslist looking for a family dog as our Irish Water Spaniel, Little Bit, had recently passed.  Having four young children at home, I was hesitant to start at the puppy stage, so I was looking for an adult dog who could fit into the mix of a chaotic, boisterous family.  A woman on a farm contacted me, letting me know that she had a collie who needed a new home.  Her donkeys had been kicking Lacey, who had been given to her by another family and the whole situation wasn’t working out.  When I arrived at the farm, Lacey was in a rusted pen with a few chihuahuas.  She was covered in fleas and had a bare spot on her back where the donkeys had been kicking her.  She was timid and jittery.  People rush to judgment when I tell this story, but truthfully everyone on the farm, people and animals alike, seemed to live in the same conditions.  It was just their way.  Truthfully, they were kind, and they gave me Lacey, and for that, I will always be grateful.

I didn’t have any intention to keep Lacey when I took her home from the farm.  She really wasn’t what I had in mind, as our next family dog.  I just knew that I couldn’t let her stay there.  I had every intention of taking her to a Collie Rescue organization, but as I treated her and got to know her, I never got around to making that call to the rescue.  I fell in love and connected with her, within a few days.   I’ve loved her ever since.

Lacey was beautiful.  We never once walked her without people commenting on her elegance and loveliness.  She was always a little bit timid, but in times that she felt protective of us, her family, she threw her timidity right out of the window.  I never doubted that she would have taken a bullet for any of one of us.  Like all family dogs, she was there through so many milestones in our lives, the exciting ones and the painful ones.  She was that constant, gorgeous, steady being with soulful eyes and long, soft, warm fur – there for us always, during the storms and the calm.  Lacey would walk with me and my husband, forever, as long as we needed to, whenever we were working our stresses out, through walking.  We walked for miles and miles and miles, together with Lacey, throughout the years.  She loved our walks.

It feels wrong to be able to be writing this.  It feels wrong to send out the Christmas cards with her picture on it, but then it would feel wrong not to honor her either.  I guess everything just feels wrong right now.  Lacey, thank you for everything.  I love you with all of my heart.  Play and run in the green, grassy, fields, in perfect restored health.  Until we meet again, beautiful . . .