NYC Pet Show May 21, 2011

So the question of the  day at the NYC Pet Show was, "how is your dog a super hero".  Easy one for me to answer....
Lacy and I are "senior" companions. For fifteen years she has enjoyed being head of our household, spoiled child of empty nesters, and all around diva wearing custom made sweaters and dining on freshly cooked chicken and rice. And I, at sixty, enjoyed  a 27 year run in the woman's apparel industry, currently forced into retirement , affording me ample time to cook that chicken and rice for her.

While we were lying in bed one night, I questioned my future. Do I REALLY want to try to find another job in an industry I no longer LOVE ? I knew the answer before Lacy's head plopped down on my lap and she looked up at me with wizened eyes.

So, together we em"barked" on a major career and lifestyle change. I started to create fashion for those I DO love, dogs...... by making my artsy free-form crochet sweaters normally reserved for Lacy alone, or my grand-dogs Scooter and Daisy Louise, into prototypes for the start up collection of Lollypups Designer Pet Wear, and to have them reproduced in China. For the first time in her life, I began to ask more of Lacy then just cuteness and kisses. She became my blank canvas, fit model, sweater tester, sales rep, mascot, muse and super model. And she obliged. She let me know how itchy the sweaters were from China, so I switched to fine baby alpaca and had them made in Peru. She let me pin and re-pin muslins on her fluffy anatomy in order to perfect the couture fabric harness patterns (and she went from size medium to size large because of all the treats I had to bribe her with). She proudly wore each sample garment on test runs to the park, and at pet industry and holiday vendor events, and never complained (but napped often). And together we basked in the compliments and the sales. But the best part is, we do it together. She wears the new designs proudly and seems to say, "dress me in couture and I'll still strut my stuff".

She's made me look at "senior" in a whole new light and not through my own disappointments and frustrations. She made me laugh at some of the silly things I tried to create and she tried to shimmy off, and she made "work" fun for me again. But mostly, she made me see that senior doesn't mean old and useless.

I volunteer at the local shelter and take the "senior" dogs walking a couple times a week. We all move a bit slowly but it's the sunshine and exercise that keeps us going, and the knowledge that somebody really cares.  I for them and they for me.

Lacy, this little white Bichon Frise with few teeth, bad hearing and wobbly knees, is the best super hero there can be in my book. Not the kind that helps catch Osama bin Laden or bank robbers, or purse snatchers. They are heroes in their own way. But Lacy is a canine senior who has made a difference to other seniors, namely me, and the new found additional loves of my life at the shelter, Reily, Sheeba and Buzzy.


You CAN teach an old dog new tricks....Love, respect and productiveness..... and Lacy and I are enjoying our "golden" years surrounded by it! Age happens to us all, only not everyone will have Lacy to ease them through it.