It’s with a heavy heart TGQ loses another original employee – Lulu, our Chief Hospitality Officer. For those who came in when she was there, she was always the first to the door to greet a customer. She was a vocal one, too, when she was happy to see someone. In the photo below, SILENCE. Focus is 100% locked on the Halloween treat. Life is very different now without her.

Laser focus! Beatrice (left), Lulu (right).

By the time we opened The Gentleman Quilter, she was grown up. Here are a few pictures from her early days. In the photo below, we were staying at a hotel and ran into a wedding party who wanted them in their photos. I wasn’t going to tell the bride no, but I held my breath Lulu wouldn’t shred her dress with those sharp nails. Luckily she didn’t.

She was named after Lululemon because I called John a “Lulu Hound”. Every piece of clothing he wore, except socks, came from Lululemon. When we were thinking of names, I said, “Lulu - obviously”. Maybe that’s how she became more his dog than mine? The two photos below capture that she stole his heart from the start! As she did with her first visit to meet some of the grandkids (bottom left). The bottom right photo is a recent one, she was always happy with a kid loving her.

Unconditional love in every one of these pictures.

Oh, she may have had a little bit of a reputation. Yes, she had scratched John’s cornea (didn’t mean to), and there was that time she broke my finger (it was the other dog’s fault), but she was a sweet girl. She was also quite the hunter, she caught two birds, and one squirrel - not bad for a city dog! She would have had more, but we learned to reign her in. She was known to like chocolate and may or may not have eaten an entire bag of Andes mint chips (she did!). The photo below shows the pins and the joyous day when I could wear my wedding ring again.

I still cringe when I see that x-ray photo.

Being so thin haired, she hated water, especially a hard rain, but was scared of an umbrella. Lulu was always a dichotomy. That’s what made her Lulu. Below she’s seen where she liked watching life go by, keeping a close eye on Forest Park.

Neighborhood Watch Program in action this Fall.

Last year a neuro issue started and I thought we had it “fixed”, but the pain med must have just masked whatever it was that was going on. Late this summer, after she recovered from a nasty venom bite the end of May (I won’t share that pic, rough) and a case of canine influenza in August despite having the vax, changes started occurring. I did the math for her human age, she’s almost the same age as John was when he died. Like him, she was too young to go, but it was too hard to stay.

The photo below captures her personality early on and the other is just before end. Our good friend, Fr Laurent, stopped by to give her a little love and tell her goodbye. I’m hoping they’re happily watching some SEC football or maybe Bobby Flay together.

Lulu never sat in a chair, always on a sofa.

If you have a boxer, you know what I mean when I say “they’d get in your skin if they could”. Well, the last few weeks, I’ve feared what was coming and I would’ve gotten in her skin if I could. She had the softest coat and I just petted and petted her. Probably ever dog ear is soft, but Lulu’s were so velvet-ey. I think her thin hair made it so. We would run her ears through our fingers and felt our blood pressure just come down. There was a lot of ear rubbing this last month.

What a hard decision it is, as anyone with pets knows, so we said goodbye at home. Once I had the appointment made for the vet to come to us, I did my best to soak up all my time with her. I buttoned up the shop and had over 24 hours of just loving her. Beatrice did, too.

These two have loved each other since they met.

That last day was filled with all her favorites. Below we’re at Ted Drewes.

It took her a while, but she got every last bit of it!

There is another special thing that happened in this story, the vet who came to help us with goodbye is a customer of TGQ! I didn’t recognize him and because his wife kept her maiden name, I didn’t put anything together. For once I wasn’t wearing a TGQ shirt, so he didn’t have reason to recognize me. Near the end, the work phone rang, SPAM call, and when I hung up, he had the strangest look on his face. I said, “Have you heard of The Gentleman Quilter?” and he said, “I’ve been there.” Now I’m looking at him strangely because I’ve always been there when a customer has come in and I couldn’t place him. Once he said his wife’s name, I knew! I remembered his quilt (Texas Star) his wife made for their bed and the quilt design he had John quilt it with (Fire). He remembered John and the cool dragon quilt John pieced and quilted as well as both boxers. What a small world!! By this time the end had come. We bundled her in a quilt, of course, and he took her. It was so much easier letting her leave with him knowing he knew all of us.

Lastly, the painted portrait of Lulu was done by my sister and I thought it was perfect for the “cover” of this journal entry. It really captures Lulu and it hangs in the shop. I’ve loved these paintings of our dogs, but once the dog is gone, I love them even more.

A friend summed it up, “You have loved and given comfort to Lulu who has done the same for you.” That is so very true. I look at the last 20 months since John died, these dogs have done so much to help me. Lulu lead the charge as Beatrice was only 11 months when John died. They had a routine and expected me to keep it. I did. Now it’s time to find a new routine as a pack of two. Come on, Beatrice, we have a life to live . . .