Our Sweet Lucky

Eighteen years ago, Carl and I begged our mom for a little puppy, but she was adamant- absolutely, positively no dogs allowed in the Copon household. But that didn't discourage us at all. We simply changed tactics.

That's when we started to work on our dad. We promised him we would take good care of a puppy, it would be no trouble at all, and a puppy would make our family complete. We showed him an ad in the paper of a beagle breeder in Chesapeake who was selling puppies for a mere $65. We might have even offered to pay for the puppy by combining our Christmas/Easter/Birthday money (we didn't get allowances growing up).

To our complete shock and amazement, he came home early from work one day and told us to get in the car because we were driving out to Chesapeake to pick out a beagle puppy of our own. That may have been the most exciting moment of my life up until then. Carl and I were beside ourselves. Our dreams were finally coming true! Dad's only warning was, "Don't tell your mom." How we were supposed to keep this a secret I have no idea, but we would've promised Dad anything at that point to get our hands on a puppy.

The drive seemed like an eternity, but when we finally reached the breeder's, we were overwhelmed by all the cute little puppies. How in the world were we ever going to pick one out? They were all equally adorable. Then I noticed there was a rambunctious little thing tugging at my shoestrings. I picked him up and we noticed that he had a white diamond on his forehead. I didn't put him back down after that. This was the puppy for us. He basically picked us and we were lucky to have him. And that's how he got his name. We were extremely fortunate to have him. And a soft hearted dad helped a lot too.

When we got home, we were very nervous because mom would be coming home soon. She told us no puppies, but here we had this sweet and tiny six week old beagle. We hid Lucky under a little towel by the couch and hoped for the best. As my mom sat down on the couch, Lucky managed to peep out from under the towel. Carl and I braced ourselves for her anger and a possible order to take him back where we got him.

Instead, it was love at first sight.

However, our promise that a puppy would be no trouble at all was a little harder to keep than we anticipated. Lucky peed all over the carpet, chewed up the vinyl flooring, ripped a sofa to shreds, stole food off the table, and the list goes on and on....

But for every naughty thing he did, there were two wonderful things he did to make up for it. He was a faithful companion always ready for a snuggle, he was an awesome guard dog with his beagle bark, he was a great 'babysitter' when Josh was a baby- stationed under his crib and barking frantically for one of us to let us know the baby was awake, he was a patient toy for the babies, first Josh and then Grace- letting them tug on his ears and tail and not minding if he was used as a horsie, and the list goes on and on....

Thank you, Lucky, for being a part of our family. You really did complete us. We will miss you always.



We tried to pick out the prettiest spot for his resting place. I hope he enjoys this sweet little garden. He always loved laying in the shade of a flowering bush or tree.