Lucia… A Medical Alert Pomeranian

I became a Pommy Mommy to my Blue Merle, Lucia in April of 2012 from a well respected small breeder in Waterlou, IL. My mom has a Blue Merle Pomeranian, so when I saw Lucia’s picture I knew I wanted her. I just love Blue Merles. I sent a 3 paragraph email to the breeder and she was please to see that I put so much information and thought into it. Most people just asked “is the pup available, can I pick her up’. You know… not too personal. Lucia was about 3 months and 2.5 lbs! A little poof of fur with a big attitude.  My family is German and Italian, so German dog, Italian name… my Mom named her Lucia.  Mom has two Poms, Vinny and Frankie… so we needed to round out the Pom-fia with an Italian girl’s name… so Lucia, it is.

I wasn’t anticipating on Lucia becoming a Medical Alert Pomeranian, but about a month into Pommy Parenthood she started to mimic my mom’s service Poms. She began to “alert” on me and when you have three poms and a black lab telling you something is wrong you had better believe them… it’s like Lasssie telling you Timmy’s in the ditch… Timmy’s in the ditch.  Frankie and Vinny alert on breathing conditions, so I thought it was my allergies, but come to find out… I had asthma.  Somehow, Lucia also picked up on the hypoglycemia, which has always been an issue for me.

She was a natural, so Lucia and I went into training. We joined a group called STLHUGGS. Owners are trained to work with their dog to fine tune their alerting (or whatever it is they are needed for) and work with “their” person. It was a comfort to know that it costs less to train your own dog and the group atmosphere is nice because you’re not alone trying to learn all this new stuff. Most of the dogs in the group are smaller breeds. With medical alert they do not need to open doors or guide us, they simply tell us when something is wrong so we can take our meds before our body knows we need them. Lucia will take her final test in Feb. 2014, when she is two years old. In the mean time we keep practicing.

This April after she has completed her testing we are going back to Disney World for the second time! I am so excited for her.  She’s been a life saver and a true best friend. I don’t know what I would do without her.