A memorial for one lucky dog

LACONIA — A memento with a photo of Lucky Jr. on his wedding day offered the simple message: “Thank you for bringing joy to so many.” Boxes contained mirrors and buttons depicting the cuddly coal-black Labrador retriever for the public to take home and remember him.

Not every dog gets a memorial service to celebrate his life — much less one with friends, neighbors, fellow canines and community admirers.

But when that dog is Lucky Jr. Sanborn, the affable mascot for Sanborn's Auto Repair on Union Avenue — who got petted, feted, photographed and married during his eventful nine years — the carpet is rolled out and the barking resounds.

“I think he was the mascot of our whole area,” said Karen Daly of Laconia, a fan who collected ads featuring Lucky Jr. in The Laconia Daily Sun over the course of eight years. Like others in the area, she went to at least one of his birthday parties. “He was just a love bug,” she said. “He was everybody’s dog.”

Roughly 100 people and a handful of pets including two of Lucky’s puppies came to Funspot on Saturday to pay their respects, eat pizza together, remember his life and what he did for others. 

“I knew him from going to the garage,” said Dan Dockham of Gilmanton. “We’d have a greeting and pat him, that kind of thing.”

“What did he mean to me? The world,” said Shane Kaplan of Laconia, who owns Lucky’s cousin, Ragnar. Kaplan’s father now cares for Daisy, the yellow Labrador retriever that Lucky was wed to three years ago at a public ceremony in Rotary Park, attendants in wedding attire. A photo of the wedding party is now circling the state as part of traveling art exhibit called “New Hampshire Now.”

Ginny Sanborn, Lucky Jr.’s owner, is still reeling from grief after losing the pal that was her full-time companion during long term medical treatments. “I’ve had so many blood transfusions in my life I wanted to pay it forward” with heartwarming ads in the form of photos of Lucky and captions in the paper. Many looked forward to flipping pages of Lucky’s yearly photo calendar, available to people who stopped by Sanborn’s to pick up a visual dose of Lucky’s irresistible antics and unconditional love. “When I had transfusions, he’d be right there,” Ginny said.

Lucky died Nov. 30, from an autoimmune disease that disabled his liver. The family spent nearly $10,000 on treatments to cure his confounding condition, which seemed to come on suddenly. Sanborn said she received roughly 3,000 condolences by email and posts on social media, including from strangers in other states who followed and collected Sanborn's Auto Repair’s ads in The Daily Sun, which featured the dog in various real-life or contrived situations, with wit, wisdom or good-natured wisecracks.

Between December 2012 and the end of November 2021, at least 750 photo messages ran in The Sun. Ginny said she will probably continue the tradition with two of Lucky’s five puppies, Smokey and Diamond — depending on their dispositions and whether they like to ham it up for the camera.

“I’d get the paper every day just to read about him,” said Daly. “Then I’d read the paper.” She said she especially enjoyed Lucky’s comments on fitness and weight loss including one that pictured him looking vaguely perplexed, with the statement, “Exercise? I thought you said ‘Extra Fries.’" “There were times if I had a hard morning, if I looked at his picture in the paper, it just brightened my whole day,” she said.

Lucky’s community service as a therapy dog, with regular visits to nurses and nursing home residents, and his public appearances and birthday cookouts at Sanborn’s, won hundreds of hearts.

“I have stacks of clippings of Lucky from the Sun, stacked in my living room,” said Paula Buckle of Belmont. “It’s more than a dog. The family did so many neat things with him. I went to his wedding. There was no way I was going to miss it.”

Roger Cabana, a U.S. Navy veteran, met Lucky at the New Hampshire Veterans Home, where Ginny brought Lucky to visit. “I was sitting in front of the elevator.  She looked at me and said, ‘Would you like to help me walk Lucky around?’ I said, ‘Of course I would! I’m an animal lover.’” For five years Cabana helped Ginny walk Lucky around to rooms – a ritual that helped Cabana and the residents make a new friend.

The laid-back lab was a favorite sight for cars passing by Sanborn’s on Union Avenue, where he sat peacefully on the curb. He was the recipient of countless pats and innumerable biscuits, which he gladly wolfed down without counting calories.

“We went there to get some tires and he jumped right up on us. He just strutted around greeting everybody,” said Linda Constant of Plymouth. “When I greeted him I’d rub him on both sides and he’d come around and do it again,” said her husband, Allen Constant.

Lucky was frequently photographed by Ian Raymond, his official portrait photographer, described by Ginny as Lucky’s “pupparrazzi.”

“Any time he saw a camera, he figured it was his turn to be part of it,” Raymond said. “We had a hard time coming up with ideas that were crazy enough, that he wouldn’t do.”

The photo display Saturday at Funspot was a fitting memorial to a pet with an outsized personality and far-ranging renown. One featured Lucky sitting beside Gov. Chris Sununu at a pancake breakfast at Heritage Farm in Sanbornton, where Lucky had gone for a photo shoot.

A slide show at his memorial service scrolled through roughly 240 photos with captions from Lucky’s calendar and ads in The Sun.

During road construction on Union Avenue, one depicted Lucky standing next to a sign, “You’ll never get to work on time, ha-ha,” with the added caption, “The road to success is always under construction.”

A photo of the dog sitting in front of a computer screen next to a plate of goodies read, “I’m from tech. I’m here to delete your cookies.”

Another depicted Lucky surrounded by his copious collection of rawhide bones. “My name is Lucky Jr. and I’m a hoarder. I’ve been a hoarder for two and a half years.”

Patty Johnson, a graphic designer at The Sun, made a micro-career of composing daily Lucky ads for Sanborn's Auto Repair starting in 2013, with help from copywriter Karin Nelson. She said the public’s favorite, which netted the most “likes” on social media, was a photo of Lucky reclining next to a Christmas tree lying flat on the floor, with the caption, “I’m so glad you’re home! The tree just fainted!”

Ginny said one woman told her that Lucky’s ads in The Sun helped her get through chemotherapy for breast cancer. When news spread online that Lucky had died, fans as far as Rhode Island sent condolences, including, “Lucky has crossed the rainbow.”

“There’ll never be another Lucky,” Ginny said.

“Community, love, spirit,” said Sharon Pond of Laconia, “that’s what he meant to me.”

“He was a famous dog. It was great to have a celebrity patient over the years,” said Dr. Tim Fallon, his veterinarian, who drove up from Epping. “I knew him his whole life.”

Lucky’s final free calendar for 2022 will be available at Sanborn's Auto Repair, The Laconia Daily Sun and Ian Raymond’s photography studio on Main Street downtown in about three weeks.