Real Lulu of a pet

By Emma Sun
The Maltese is the spoiled pet of Sue and Ted Atkinson, who adopted the eight-year-old dog from the RSPCA about a year ago.
The Pakenham couple used to have a German Shepherd, which unfortunately died at 13 years after suffering diabetes for three years.
“We’re both retired, so I said to my husband that I didn’t want any more dogs because we’re too old, but he kept nagging me to get one,” Sue said.
“I said there’s no use getting a puppy now, so I told him to go online and find a dog. He went online and looked at the RSPCA, picked out a few dogs he wanted to look at.
“He was going to get another dog, but I said go check out that lovely little fluffy white one and that’s how we found Lulu.”
Sue recently discovered Lulu has epilepsy, which causes the little dog to have seizures.
“We didn’t know what is was at first – she was having these funny seizures and she couldn’t walk – it was like she was in a daze,” she said.
The canine now is kept as lively as ever, with medication taming the seizures.
She has Sue and Ted wrapped around her little paw and Sue admitted Lulu got to do whatever she wanted in the house.
“We’ve got about four tennis balls and she loves if we stand in the kitchen and bounce them to the front door,” Sue said.
“When you go and try to get one of them back she doesn’t want to give you any of them, so you’ve got to keep playing ball for about 15 minutes.”
The little dog has a few quirks, such as her habit of collecting Ted’s socks and gathering them on her bed.
Sue said Lulu was also smart enough to understand what she and Ted were talking about.
“Ted gave her a bone, which she’d hidden behind a chair, and Ted would ask her where the bone was and she would go get it – she knew exactly what he was saying,” Sue explained.
“When Ted takes her on her daily walk, he’d say “walkies now” and she’d walk up to her lead. She’s a clever little dog.”
Lulu loves attention and makes a habit of running into Sue and Ted’s bedroom every morning at about 5am and jumping on the bed for her morning cuddle.
Sue said Lulu would always be a treasured member of her family.
“I wouldn’t part with her for the world now – we’ve only had her just over a year but she’s part of the family,” she said.
“We’ve absolutely fallen in love with her and don’t know what we’d do without her. She’s cost us a fortune in vet bills but you do it for your loved pet.”