RIP Sweet Lizzie [PHOTOS]

My sweet little Lizzie died today. We had the pleasure of caring for her for fifteen years and she was a really special little dog.

I was part of the original Krewe des Chiens Board of Directors and the only member who didn’t have a dog. Our cocker spaniel had passed away the year before at the age of seventeen and we just weren’t ready to welcome another furry family member into our home just yet. That all changed when I got a call from Dr. Andy Plauche, who was also on the Board, telling me about a tiny, frightened stray with a broken tail one of their staffers had rescued from the street. We met her that very day and fell in love instantly. When I went to PetSmart to buy a crate and some food for her, she and my husband got to know each other... and, just as I had done almost twenty years before, she fell in love with him.

He decided her name should be Lizzie. She loved us both, but she adored Dave. This little black dog was the sweetest, most gentle animal around women, but when it came to men, if it wasn’t Dave, he was the enemy. At least until she got to know you. She was the grumpy old aunt to our other two dogs. If they became too playful around her she would bark at them as if to say “Settle down, now!” She was a great little traveler. She even accompanied us to Alaska, and nobody around us even knew there was a dog in the mesh crate at my feet on the plane.

She loved to walk around the block; she loved to lay in the sun; she loved to be scratched on the chest. She preferred laying between your leg and the arm of the chair to being in your lap, until she she started falling. Then she loved to be cuddled in my arms. I loved that.

Rest in Peace my sweet angel girl.

Special thanks to Dr. Andy Plauche for caring for her as a pup and Dr. Renee Poirrier and her wonderful staff for being such loving caregivers to Lizzie (and us) in her later years.