In 2002, I got Lucy. She was a six month puppy that was the cutest dern thing I had ever seen. It wasn't long before me and Unc (although he wasn't Unc at the time, he was Michael, my brother who lived with me at the time) realized that Lucy was special.
It was like Lucy named herself. I brought her home and walked downstairs to Unc's room and he said, "she looks like a Lucy." We ran through a list of some other names, but it was clear from the start that she was Lucy.
Lucy, was a very quick learner. (Except on potty training.) I had only had her two months before she was sitting, laying down, rolling over, jumping and speaking on command. And that was just the beginning. By the time she was a year old, she was doing all kind of tricks--people are still impressed with her super-tricks.
She didn't potty train so well, and she was a chewer. Once, while Mikey T and I were in our on-again-off-again stage, he had some brand new, very expensive, golf shoes at my house. He came over one day after work and one of the shoes was shredded to pieces. It was FootJoy minus the Joy. He was not happy. It was pretty tense between Mikey T and Lucy the Wonder Dog for a while, but they worked through it.
Lucy is also very protective. She once bit a man because she thought that he was hurting Unc during a game of basketball. I was sitting with Lucy and had her by the leash while the guys played ball. Unc had the ball and someone went to slap it out of his hands. MISTAKE. In less than one second, Lucy had broken free from my grip, wrangled free from her collar, run to the basketball court and bit the guy's hand. There was blood and it was not pretty. Luckily, one of our neighbors was a medic in the Air Force and he took care of the wound. The guy was very forgivving of Lucy (and me) and we did not have to quarantine her and he did not sue me. Whew.
Anyway, when Emma Kate was born, Lucy had some adjusting to do. She was no longer the cener of our household. However, she adjusted well.
Once Emma Kate became mobile, it was over for Lucy. She was re-named UCY and Emma Kate adores her. But, she thinks that Ucy is her own personal toy. She rides her. She gets in the chair with her and lays on her, she pulls and pokes and prods. And Ucy just lays there. She never growls. She never gets angry. She just enjoys Emma Kate as much as Emma Kate enjoys her. They are best buds and will be for a very long time. 
