Fatty Lumpkin

By: Stephanie on 9:07 AM

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Yes, it's another dog.

Last month, Johnny and I added another canine family member. Oops, sorry we're just getting around to telling you. The director of the non-profit for which I work resigned last month and moved back to Michigan to care for her ailing mother. She gave me a number of things before leaving, including an aloe vera plant, some candles, a pair of spurs, a riding crop, a pair of riding breeches, an elliptical machine, and the dog pictured above. 

His name, officially, is Lucky. He sort of answers to it, and it's the name listed on all of his vet records. He's a former stray, so I suppose it's fitting. But we have another name for him around here: Fatty Lumpkin. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's from Lord of the Rings (the book, not the movie). From the Lord of the Rings Wiki:

"Fatty Lumpkin was one of Tom Bombadil's ponies. When Frodo and his Hobbit companions, Sam, Merry and Pippin were taken by the Barrow-wights, Tom rescues them on Fatty Lumpkin."

It's an appropriate name for the dog- the poor thing weighed 38 pounds at his last vet check-up!! He's only about two feet tall, so I think this makes him something like "morbidly obese". He wheezes when he walks, sleeps, rests, and chews. Johnny is afraid walks will kill him, so we've just been letting him take it easy and wander around the backyard at his own pace. (He has a vet appointment this week, which will hopefully shed light on what sort of exercise routine he can handle.)

Buttons is delighted to have a canine friend. After her efforts to play with the cats were continually rebutted, she seemed a little down. But once Lucky showed up, her spirits were renewed! Here was something she could jump on and bite and roll around with! Fatty Lumpkin, to his credit, lets her go crazy and never snaps or fights with her, even when she seems to be trying to tear one of his tiny ears off. He's generally a pretty good-natured fellow; he and Buttons only have spats when there aren't enough rawhide chews to go around. 

Lucky's long hair is kind of annoying- it sheds constantly and accumulates in gross piles around the house. He also smells really, really doggy and sometimes pees on the carpet. And his continuous wheezing is a real detriment to sleeping. But he's a dopey, sweet, cuddly animal, and we're (mostly) happy to have him.