Howllo Fellow Hound and Lucien Lovers: I know there are many of you out there. Melynda made sure the love machine’s stories were told and I was one of the many who waited for each and every one of them. I love how Melynda named him Lucien after the American trombone player, Lucien Barbarin.

Just one of the many stories that made Lucien the hound’s life so colorful. Melynda is a good friend of mine and I asked her to write a bio for me so I could do a blog posting in Lucien’s honor. He was such a good boy and many people and hounds are going to miss him. I count myself as one of them.

Lucien the Love Machine Goes to the Rainbow Bridge

3-29-08

I adopted Lucien and his bonded companion Lillian from Homewoods Rescue for the Wayward Hound on September 10, 2006, about two months after my sweet Agnes Marie Basset Hound departed for the Bridge. This is her picture!

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I had seen Lucien (Logo) on Petfinder before Agnes passed and I thought he was the most handsome basset I’d ever seen. He was ten years old, a very striking light lemon-and-white, but he looked so sad to be stuck in rescue. A few days after Agnes made her journey, I checked on him and he was gone from Petfinder. I contacted the rescue to make sure he had been adopted and had not gone to the Bridge instead, and his rescuer Marth asked me if I could make room in my heart for him and his bonded companion, Lizzy (now Lilly).

Lucien’s original family had put him into rescue as a senior after a death in the family. His last year he had been kept outside in the yard and he was very depressed. He had been adopted but was returned to rescue for bad habits like separation anxiety and sleeping on the couch. Their loss was my gain.

Lucien was very suspicious of me at first and kept to himself, but after about three days he seemed to realize all at once that this was to be his forever home, and he looked at me with the happiest, most radiant expression on his face that I’ve ever seen on anyone, human or hound. After that, his personality really came through and he began jumping on the couch, in the bed, on my lap, and barking at me to make his dinner on time. He was just so loving and happy and he especially loved to cuddle with my housemate Amanda, and she loved him right back.

A few days after I got them Lilly went into heat just as I was getting ready to take her for her spay, and that’s when Lucien earned his nickname,

“The Love Machine.”

He was neutered but he didn’t know that. He really thought the world would be a much better place with some more solid-white basset puppies in it. It didn’t work of course but he sure tried.

Over the next year and a half, Lucien and Lilly learned to enjoy car rides and trips and we went a lot of places in our BUV. We went to Petsmart, to House of Puddles frequently, to the Boardwaddle in Ocean City, NJ and to the BROOD Ramble in Williamsport, VA. Everywhere he went he always found a new doggie girlfriend and made lots of new human friends. At the BROOD Ramble, Lucien conned a family into giving him some of their lunch (a hot dog, with mustard and ketchup, cut up, on a plate) and he spent most of the day hanging out at the adoption booth. I don’t think he was shopping for a new family though.

Lucien was also a proud member of Kaylee’s Sitteruppers Club. He is sitting up at the bridge right now, most likely with it’s founder Bernie Johnson who passed the same week as Lucien.

Lucien suffered from what we thought was coughing brought on by severe allergies and hayfever, and his vet prescribed allergy medication, but it wasn’t really helping so I made another appointment last week. He lost his appetite so I bribed him to eat with all his favorites: ham and scrambled eggs, Popeye’s chicken and biscuits, bologna and cheez sandwiches, cheezburgers, pancakes and bacon.

By Friday night, he had become very weak, had lost a lot of weight, and was having trouble breathing. When I took him in Saturday morning, they x-rayed him and discovered he had end-stage lung cancer. We never knew because he never showed any symptoms until right at the end. There was no hope for meaningful recovery, and keeping him here would have been selfish. So I made the very sad decision to send him to the Bridge.

Lilly has been grieving very badly, but our friend Marilyn at House of Puddles offered to let me adopt Lilly’s bestest furend, Becky, to be her new sister and companion. We got Becky the same night Lucien went to the Bridge so Lilly never has to be alone.

Lucien had a paw in Becky’s adoption because he couldn’t stand for anyone, human or hound, to be sad. And I know Lucien’s not alone either, because he joined his kitty Max who also made a sudden journey to the Bridge less than a month ago.

He’s with his sister Agnes Marie Basset Hound and many others, including his friend Rudolph who followed his path yesterday. He leaves many sad friends and furends behind though Lucien touched a lot of lives.

Mommy loves you sweet boy…..

You can see Lucien on his Dogster Page: http://www.dogster.com/dogs/381592

Your presence will be missed on this earth but your soul will always be with us.

More Later…Cat, Chaps and Emma

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