A Beagle named Lucky

How does the joke go?
A man sees an acquaintance with his dog.  The dog has bandages, is missing an eye, is limping, etc.
The man asks the owner what happened and the owner relates a few amazing tales of one-in-a-million shots resulting the dog's injuries.  The questioner is astonished and asks the dogs name.
"Lucky." the owner responds.

My dog Lucky was a case of life imitating art - or at least that joke.

Lucky was not a very pretty dog.  This is almost assuredly at least partially the result of a not very friendly beginning of life.
I don't know very much about the early part of his life, but he was found near where I worked (before I worked there).  Our department secretary ended up taking him home where he became the family dog, or more particularly her son's dog.
What we know about his early life can be read in his appearance.  His head was misproportioned as a result of injuries while young.  He had an enormous overbite and oddly shaped eyes.  Couple with this he had old-dog fat all his life, had coarse gnarly fur, walked with an odd gait and was never able to walk in a straight line.  The overbite was his striking feature.  It prevented him from eating normally and in order to drink he had to put is upper jaw on the rim of the bowl as he drank from the bowl.
A fish doesn't see the water he swims in so Lucky likely just saw himself as any other dog might.

He was Cheryl's family dog for a long time.  When I bought the first house after moving to Ohio, I needed a refrigerator.  Cheryl said they had one to offer for free.  I found out around the time I went to get it that they were getting rid of it due to the sale of the house as a result of an impending divorce.
When I went to get the fridge, I had Mandy and Sammy in the truck with me.  Apparently after leaving with the appliance, they had discussions around my taking of their beagle.  Due to the divorce and subsequent split and move, Lucky needed a new home.
We got a refrigerator and it came with a dog.

After a short visit to see how the three dogs would get along, Lucky came to live at the new house in early February.  Lucky wasn't so sure what to make of the change.  He had never lived with other dogs and due to the confusion, didn't want to be left alone.
Within a day or so of getting Lucky, I had an unwanted day off when torrential rain came along with melting snow and flooded the basement severely.  This is before several (successful) efforts were taken to mitigate the flood-prone basement.
The house was a Victorian with eight foot windows in the front.  Several of the windows weren't in prime condition and a couple panes were cracked.  On this flood day, as I went out to get the mail, I heard glass breaking a turned around to see Lucky trying to get to me through the pane that had gone from cracked to broken as a result of his efforts.  I hurried back inside to prevent him from cutting himself on the broken glass.
Plugged gutters are a pet peeve of mine and later that same day, I opened a second story window to get on the kitchen roof and unplug the lower gutters there.  After hearing a noise, I turned around to see Lucky standing unsteadily on the roof looking at me.
Remember the joke about the dog named Lucky?

Once the initial shock of his new life wore off, Lucky became of the pack.  Three dogs, soon to be four.
He was not a young dog and accepted this new living situation, but never really embracing it or understanding it.  As such, he developed an aloof nature I've rarely seen in other dogs.  This extended to most of his dog's life.
At this point in life, I was doing a lot of camping for recreation.  Lucky took to the tent well, but his aloof nature went along with him.  While camping at Old Man's Cave in Eastern Ohio, I recall one time when there was a group of us hiking while towing the dogs along on leashes.  Lucky, seeing no reason to stop happily walked along the trail and while merrily pooping along.  "Luckily" I saw this and was able to clean the material off the trail so as not to spoil any one else's hike.

His aloof nature meant that he was never my favorite dog, but he was a wonderful dog at the same time.  Never flashy, but always there.  He didn't chase and attack squirrels, didn't really like toys and was never very needy.
His one passion was licking his front feet.  Something he did a lot, and nothing could really stop it.

As he got older, he didn't exactly age gracefully.  His crooked walk got worse and his breath and eating would at times be odd.  Knowing something was going wrong, he went to the vet where a biopsy confirmed he had cancer in his head, spreading to his jaw.
He had to have his teeth removed, but this never really bothered him.  His jaw was so odd anyway, the teeth were merely grotesque decoration.  For a long time he showed no evidence of discomfort, so I let him be a dog.
Predictably, things eventually took a turn for the worse.  Toward the end, he went blind.  I think to Lucky, this was just another event in his topsy life.  He figured out that if he bumped into something but could put his head on it, it must be a step so he should walk up it.  He was actually able to navigate well with this assumption, but this resulted in his climbing on lots of stuff and resulting in much confusion.  Stacks of magazine continually knocked over, potted plants tipped with dirt all over.
Feeding became harder.  With his misshapen head, he needed daily help to "see" his food and get it out of his bowl.  This was more than just setting him in front of it to eat.
As he continued to age and deteriorate, he began regularly to relieve himself indoors.  I'm amazed that even healthy dogs can hold it as long as we sometimes ask them to so daily clean-up was part of having Lucky.  Daily moppings resulted in a very clean kitchen floor (at least parts of it).

I thought Lucky was actually improving at one point only to realize he had stopped even getting out of his bed anymore.  Lucky had his own special bed, separate from the other dogs.  This was his one constant in life.
I knew it was time.

As I drove him to the vet, I felt as bad as I've ever felt.  He is the only dog I've had to have put down.  I felt like I was signing a death warrant and almost turned around, but it was time - if not past it.  He was not comfortable, and not really even a dog anymore; not really living as a dog should.
When it was over, I was beside myself with what I had done.  I left quickly without saying anything or even paying the vet.  As hard as it was, intellectually I know it was the right thing to do.
Lucky was buried in the back yard in his special red, white and black blanket.  A flowering crab apple tree was planted above him.  Every spring, the tree flowered abundantly.  Showing his aloof nature, the tree which was supposed to never bear fruit annually delivered a huge crop of crab apples; showing the tree had absorbed Lucky, it never grew strait, but constantly crooked.

Lucky's life started out pretty hard.  He had a great life with Cheryl, and retired with me.
After he died, I received very nice cards from Cheryl and her ex-husband.  I still have those cards today.  The vet also sent me a copy of Rainbow Bridge - a poem for anyone who has lost a furry friend.

The Rainbow Bridge
 

There is a bridge connecting heaven and Earth. It is called The
Rainbow Bridge because of its many colors. Just this side of The
Rainbow Bridge there is a land of meadows, hills and valleys
with lush green grass.

 When a beloved pet dies, it goes to this place.  There is always
food and water and warm spring weather.  The old and frail
animals are young again.  Those who are maimed are made
whole again.  They play all day with each other.

There is only one thing missing.  They are not with their special
person who loved them on earth.  So each day they run and play
until the day comes when one of them suddenly stops playing and
looks up!  The nose twitches! The ears are up! The eyes are staring!
And this one suddenly runs from the group.

You have been seen, and when you and your special friend meet, you
take him or her in your arms and embrace. Your face is covered with
  kisses, and you look once more into the eyes of your  trusting pet.

 Then you both cross over The Rainbow Bridge together, never again
to be separated.