Celebrating Life with Lucy the Spaniel

Today is Lucy's birthday—she's turning five! In honor of this special day, I thought I’d share some amusing and interesting facts about her life as a dog.

I ended up with two parts!

💞 Why Lucy? When I was a child, I had a Labrador named Dusya, and I wanted to choose a name that felt familiar and warm.

💞 People often confuse Lucy with another breed—the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. However, the King Charles Spaniel (or English Toy Spaniel) is quite different; it’s much smaller and has a flat nose, almost like a pug.

💞 How did I even learn about this breed? I discovered it in a home encyclopedia titled "Your Dog." I fell in love instantly and realized this was the breed for me.

💞 To bring Lucy to Abu Dhabi, I had to write a letter to their Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, requesting to include this breed in the registry of allowed breeds. So, it's quite likely that Lucy is the first King Charles Spaniel to enter the UAE.

💞 Living with a dog in the Emirates was quite challenging. Not all parks are dog-friendly, and often, Arabs wouldn’t allow dogs in the elevator (even in our own building). Sometimes security wouldn’t let us walk down the street. But none of that stopped us from enjoying life there—Lucy adored the salty water, chasing crabs along the bottom, and paddleboarding.

💞 I took Lucy with me everywhere it was possible. She joined me at the office multiple times, visited many friends, and even came to my stand-up performance in Moscow. And, of course, she was at our wedding in Yerevan!