LarsArts - The Art of Lars Schotzau

A memoir of a friendship between humans and animal, between Lady and us

Lady came into our life in September 1997, unprepared and unexpected. We thought about getting a dog, but didn’t realize the impact it will have on our life.
At 6 weeks old, abundant by her mother, left with only her sister at her side, we saw her and she was ours. She was cheeky, alert, with straight ears. We just fallen in love with her.
That was it we took her home the same day.

Her life was full of excitement, puppy training, walks, chasing rabbits in the fields (no chance at that age). We moved a lot and she moved with us. We made sure there was always plenty of space for her to walk free. In 2001 she left the UK for Europe and saw more European countries then some people do, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Luxemburg what a ride….

Taking care of Lady and her wellbeing was our responsibility. She rewarded us with her unconditional love and loyalty. An exceptional experience!!!

Now as we had to say our good bye to her it all becomes very apparent what a relationship we had and how much it impacted our life. It’s very sad as it is with all things in our life these days, we always seem to realize far too late how much things actually mean to us. We are taking to many things for granted instead of being thankful and appreciative. We all just start again to be kind to each other, to respect each person as an individual and leave everyone to express themselves. We could have such a better life together.

Lady had a great personality, we let her be and we could trust her. She never let us down.
Faith has only given her 10 years, far too short for our liking.
In November 2007 we had to let her go, it broke our hearts and still not one day passes when we don’t think of her.

It started in October 2006 when we noticed that she didn’t walk properly at the back. We took her to the vet, communication between her back legs and brain seemed to fade away. By the end of May 2007 she was paralysed at the back. And still she was so bright and fit, so happy to be with us. It was heartbreaking for us to see her like this and it seems so very wrong to end her life there and then. So we got her a cart to give her mobility at the back. It worked super, we went for walks every day. People would look in amazement or with pity for Lady. But she was happy. In September we went to Italy and in November we had our last holiday together in Austria. She had a great time with her friends, Paul and Gypsy.

But her illness was a creeping monster going forward slowly attacking her internal organs. No vet was able to help us, there is no cure for it. We are very happy to have given her the extra 6 month and we wouldn’t want to miss one day.

Lars my dear brother was part of her life too. He was there when she was a puppy, enjoyed every minute of playing with her together. After he left our home, he was always in for a feast of excitement every time he came to visit. It seems Lady never forgot about him. He looked after her when we went away and we could not take her. He did a photo shoot with her, she always seemed to be in front of the camera when Lars was there.
And Lars was there when it was time to say good bye.

Thank you soooo much Lars, for letting me this space, to write about Lady, our special friend and to share my thought about our bond.