Lady did much more than just try to make us laugh. She really thought it was her duty to take care of us.
She could sense when something was wrong or we felt bad. She would come to the one that felt bad and put her head on our lap trying to comfort us. If either one of us was sick and went back to bed, Lady came into the bedroom and lay down beside us. She stayed there as long as we were in bed. As an example, Durell has chronic pancreatitis which flares up unexpectedly, and he has to take medication and go back to bed. When this would happen, Lady would lie on her bed beside him all day. There were times he would wake up and find Ladys’ little head lying on the bed with those big brown eyes watching him. She was making sure he was all right.
Another example of Ladys’ care was a couple of years after she came to live with us, Durells’ blood sugar dropped dangerously low. He did not wake up until he felt a cold nose nudging him on the cheek. At first he thought Lady wanted to go out, but then realized that he was shaking all over and was sweating profusely. Lady had never been trained to recognize low blood sugar, but she knew that something was wrong. Over Ladys’ lifetime this happened several times. Several years ago Nancy fell and broke her wrist. For a few nights she found it more comfortable to sleep on the couch and hold her arm against the back of the couch to keep it from hurting so badly. You guessed it. Lady did not sleep in her bed those night, she slept by the couch and Nancy. We could share many things like these, but you get the picture. Lady was not trained as a helper dog, but she was as smart a dog as there ever was, and her concern for us was number one in her life. If she was not a “ Doggie Angel”, there never has been and never will be one.