My Saddest Post

Many of you know about the origins of my business' name, Lucky Zelda. But for those of you who don't, I'll quickly fill you in:

When trying to come up with a name, I asked friends & family for suggestions. I didn't want my name to be in the business name, i.e. "Cate's Creations" nor did I want the name to be item specific, i.e. "Pretty Purses", as I wanted the freedom to make whatever I was in the mood to make. At work one day we were chatting about possibilities & I just blurted out, "Maybe I should just name it after my dogs, Lucky Zelda." The whole room had an "ah ha!" moment. Thus Lucky Zelda was born. It's always amusing when I'm at craft shows & people will call me Zelda, tell me about their grandma Zelda, sneak a photo of my banner to send to their Aunt Zelda. Once I had a man sheepishly tell me his dog was named Zelda. "Mine too!", I said.

I am an animal lover & come by it honestly, from a long line of animal lovers. Dogs have always been members of our family. I think they're one of God's greatest inventions. The dog.

My husband, Kaisara, & I got Zelda from a foster home April, 2001. We weren't in our condo for 2 months before it had a dog-shaped hole that needed filled and Zelda filled that hole magically. She came with issues & stayed a little neurotic but she's our first dog together & Kaisara's first dog at all. Road trips, camping, hiking, going to mom & dad's, all of it. If we could take Zelda, why wouldn't we.

Lucky belonged to Kaisara's sister & he came to stay with us while the family was on vacation. Once they returned, it was decided he would stay with us as he & Zelda were good company for eachother. In September 2006 we had to say goodbye to Lucky due to kidney failure & likely cancer.

I'm shocked that it's been that long. Wow.

And now after 11 1/2 years since we brought her home with us, we had to say goodbye last night to our precious girl, Zelda. 2 years ago she had a stroke in her spinal chord which she recovered from nicely but never came back 100%. She had been declining steadily, especially these past 6 months & last night she let us know, though full of life in many ways, she was ready to go. My heart is broken as I miss her terribly & do many things for the first time without "my moon" in orbit around me.

I will continue making my Lucky Zelda items, it will just be through tears for a while.

Good night, sweet girl. Thank you for being our dog.