Remembering Lambie
This blog started when I was much younger, that's why it's colorful with a somewhat corny name. I kept the name because it was a tribute to my first black lab, who I loved so much. His name was Laszlo Lambchop of Lorissdy. I know for sure that I misspelled his last name, apologies to his canine ancestors.
If you're a first time Labrador Retriever owner, nothing prepares you for how cute and derpy they are, their perfect little symmetrical face, their angelic brown eyes, their huge paws, their unmatched friendliness, the horsy sound their big feet make when they run, their bottomless energy, their boombox voice, and so much more. We really fell in love with Lambie. And with loving him came loving the breed too.
We lost Lambie two years after we got him due to Ehrlichia. I felt so much guilt thinking I didn't do a good enough job taking care of him. And I felt so much anger at the pet clinic where he was boarding for treatment, which was grossly unjustified of course, when they called that he has passed there. Losing a pet through sickness feels like losing a loved one. You really grieve. And you never forget how much you loved them. Every pet owner knows this feeling.
In Comes Bacon...
My mom didn't want another pet after Lambie, she didn't want to go through the pain of losing another family member. And for many years we didn't have the pitter patter of little pawed feet. But an opportunity came to get another male black lab, a Lambie substitute, and mom finally relented. We welcomed Bacon into our house. 💖
He looked a lot like Lambie. He was just as tall. And he had the same smoky caramel eyes. Physically the only difference was he grew up having a shorter snout and bigger belly, but we only realized that when he became an adult. Temperamentally though, Bacon was everything Lambie was not. He was...the sweetest, gentlest, clingiest, most silent Lab we've ever known! Bacon was my doggy soulmate. He was everything I wanted - temperamentally - in a dog and more. I felt like I won the lottery with my little boy.
No offense to Lambie, but he was hooligan! The cutest hooligan but a hooligan nonetheless. He frequently jumped our gate to harass other dogs in the village only to come back at 11pm screaming to be let in. How he could jump out the gate but not jump back in was a huge mystery. Our village guards were constantly calling us to collect our little thug. And leashing him to keep the villagers safe came with nonstop protestations in 5 octaves. No amount of doggy training, private lessons included, could tame the wild beast in him 😂
To be continued...
