I Love Lucy

     Lucy is our adorable Golden Retriever, delivered to us by air on a snowy February day.  She was the 13th birthday present for my youngest son.  She was a ball of golden colored fur and shook for two days after we got her home.  My son was in the middle of reading a series of books on mythical creatures so he named her,
Pheonix. Not a typo. That's how he wanted to spell it.  We lived with that a few days until he realized how impossible it was to open the door and yell, "Pheonix, Pheonix!
Come here Pheonix!"  Thankfully, he was ok with "Lucy" which was perfect for her since she was and still is Lucille Ball incarnate. 
     Lucy lived a perfectly normal dog life in Fairway, Kansas.  She had her own bed, many times, since she was always eating them!  She had a gaggle of balls to choose from when we had our daily catch, and she had plenty of bunnies to hunt. She was well loved and well fed. My son and I are allergic to animals and her beautiful hair sent us both over the edge. Still, I brushed her and kept her furminated. She followed both of us around the house with every step we took.  We both adore her.

     Something happened to her when she got down here in Costa Rica.  Now, don't misunderstand, Lucy is alive and well and living in Quepos, Costa Rica. It's just that the dog that flew down here is not the dog I had back home.  Within a week of living out on the Tico Finca (Local farm) it was obvious that she would need a drastic haircut.  I had shaved her down to 3 inches of hair the week we left home.
But living in the daily wet wetness with all the humid humidity left her exhausted.
She would lethargically run after the ball, even managed to drop two of them into the river, but she had no hustle in her step.  Gizmo, my 13 year old Llasha, wasn't eating and my kitty was in a heightened state of anxiety. With the long drive to and from school every day, I had a lot on my plate.  I made arrangements to take her to one of two vets in town. Dra. Desiree is an adorable woman who speaks English flawlessly and has many interests. But back to Lucy, I took her into the office on the recommendation of an American living here.  Six hours and no hair later, out came Lucy, the Labrador Retriever. Even her wiskers had been shaved off!  She hated how she looked and so did I! She hung her head down and lowered her tail for five long days. 
      On the following Saturday, I took her with me to the open air market located at the shoreline. She got her groove back from everybody petting her and saying over and over, "Que lindo", how beautiful. Her ego popped right back into her heart and after that Saturday she realized, "I'm not a Golden, I'm a Lab!" and she changed right then and there. She started barking at horses and running after chickens. She rolled in horse poop!  She ate horse poop! She chased frogs out of the yard and sniffed trash. She ate and ate and ate anything she saw. Her bark deepened and she became protective. In short, she is possessed! 
      Today, I took her on a walk to town and when we got back she trotted her self right over and got in the pool and cooled off. Lucy, my fraidy cat dog.