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May 23, 2025
This week marks one year since LuLu officially became a therapy dog - but her journey started long before that.
Back in 2019, we fostered a pup named Ember. She was a sweetheart, and we seriously considered adopting her ourselves.
But she ended up with a family who needed her more - their dad was a USAF pilot heading overseas.
It felt right.
A few months later, we heard Ember's mom had another litter, and those pups needed fosters.
The moment we saw LuLu's picture - a brown version of Ember, with the same soulful eyes - we knew we had to bring her home.
At the time she had been given the foster name Eleanor and we brought her home in November of 2019.
From the day we brought her home we knew this was going to be a "foster fail" and that she would become a member of our pack.
She got along great with Laika and she had the sweetest personality.
She was also an adorable goofball - so she fit in perfectly.
During the second week of the foster period, the group we worked with - WTAR - needed a few puppies to participate in an outreach program they had started with a local entertainment venue where the puppies would meet the performers backstage.
That's how Lulu ended up backstage with Irish singer Hozier and a video of her yawning while being held by him received more than 35,000 likes on Twitter.
We officially "foster failed" around Christmas when we informed WTAR that we were keeping her.
Over the next year, as the Pandemic lockdown shut down most activities, our pack - Laika, LuLu, Corinne and I - would get out most evenings for socially distant hikes in the surrounding forests and parks.
LuLu and Laika were also active participants in the regular back patio Happy Hours that we hosted most weekends with a small group of close friends from our shuttered favorite Irish Pub.
That's also when Laika and I finished our therapy dog training - though with nowhere to visit, that plan went on hold.
We continued to foster pups over the next two years and LuLu learned how to teach the pups valuable life skills such as how to poop in the woods, run in a creek and how to hold a cicada in your mouth just to hear it buzz.
She also was a quick learner of valuable life skills herself, including how to catch a bourbon covered ice cube sliding across a wooden table.
During the ten months between selling our home in Virginia and finishing the new one in Lewes, DE, we hit the road - Vermont, the Florida Keys, and everywhere in between.
LuLu, who doesn't love the car, panted her way through every mile like a trooper.
When we arrived in Lewes three years ago, LuLu was a hit with both our new neighbors and the new friends she met at the local dog park.
While Laika has always been outgoing and happy to put on a show for the crowd, LuLu had always been content to watch quietly from the sidelines.
That changed in December 2022 when Joya (a.k.a. Piglet) joined the family.
Piglet was all energy and chaos, and LuLu made it clear she wasn't about to be demoted to third place in the pack.
That's when her personality really broke through.
The goofball charm.
The quiet confidence.
The empathy.
I saw something special - and decided to get her certified as a therapy dog.
She passed on her first try.
Finding the right place was the hard part.
LuLu still hates the car, and her early visits left her panting and stressed.
Then we discovered The Lodge at Historic Lewes - a retirement community just half a mile away.
LuLu started visiting with memory care residents at the Lodge last summer and we now visit twice each month.
During that time she has met many residents and made several dear friends who look forward to her visits.
LuLu has come a long way-from a rescue mutt from Mississippi to a calm, comforting presence in the lives of people who need her most.
Who is a good dog?
LuLu isn't just a good dog - she's a lovable goof, brightening lives with every visit.
