Nimble pup hopped onto the candlestick

Meet Lulu, a small mixed-breed dog from Illinois who runs the show.

Lulu met her family during the pandemic, when adoptable dogs were in short supply. She was quite literally the last dog in the shelter, but Nationwide member Laura M. argues they saved the best for last.

“I know everyone believes this about their dog, but mine is the absolute best,” Laura says. “She’s perfect. She’s the love of our lives, Lulu.”

“I feel like we spend a majority of our time taking pictures of Lulu and finding every single thing she does as being magical and adorable,” Laura continues. “She is the center of the activity and the things we talk about. We are wrapped around that dog’s paw, no question about it.”

Lulu has a huge personality wrapped in a small package: clever, a little clingy, food-driven and fully in charge of the household. “Lulu basically spends the day running the house,” Laura says. The plucky pooch dictates everything, including where her people can sit in the living room. Like any queen, she also has her own throne. “There is a piece of furniture that nobody sits on anymore—it is just Lulu’s, that is 100% her piece of furniture.”

That choice seat, a chaise lounge, is her perch with a lovely squirrel-watching view out the window. Then one day, a surprise tumble from her throne led to an unexpected leap over a candlestick and this Hambone-nominated incident.

What happened?

Just two weeks after moving into a new house, Lulu was perched on her chaise and hard at work monitoring the squirrel situation outside. Then, suddenly, things took a turn for the unusual.

Laura remembers it like it was yesterday: “All of a sudden I heard her scream like I’d never heard her scream.”

When she rushed over, Laura found that Lulu had slipped off the furniture, and a metal candle holder had pierced her leg. Panicked, Laura pulled the candlestick out and did her best to assess what had happened to her dog. “I went to worst case scenario in my mind,” she remembers. “And she just was crying in the most pathetic, consistent way. It was heartbreaking.”

Not sure how seriously Lulu might be injured, Laura wrapped her in a towel and raced to the emergency vet. There, Lulu got prompt treatment and was declared ... just fine.

“All of a sudden it was nothing,” Laura remembers. “They said, ‘Believe it or not, she really just needs two stitches. She’s going to be fine.’”

Laura, however, was a little worse for wear: “I was like, ‘Well, but my life just got shorter,’” she laughs. “I almost had a heart attack half an hour ago.”

In the end, Lulu needed a couple of stitches and some pain medicine. Within days, she was back up and walking around (with the cone of shame to protect her stitches). Laura says, “It was the best possible impalement.”

How Nationwide helped

In a stroke of good luck, Lulu’s candlestick catastrophe was little more than a kerfuffle. Lulu learned her lesson, and she now stalks the squirrels from safer quarters (the chaise is for lounging only!).

For her part, Laura feels lucky that she has protection for incidents big and small. “Nationwide has been our provider for years,” Laura says. “We have felt very well cared for with both preventive care and emergency care.”

“I’ve just always had insurance on my dogs,” she continues. “I’m more proactive in the care of my dog because I have pet insurance. I know that at least part of what I do for them is going to be covered and, if there's any emergency, I don't have to worry about a huge surprise bill.”

She adds, “Lulu can go do her shenanigans and we have a plan for her. She’ll be all right.”