On any given day, you’ll find four-year-old Amelia walking with a lizard attached to a leash.
“It’s not a real lizard,” Amelia smiles, before showing how its rubbery, green body is attached to a long leash. “She’s a toy lizard.”
A toy lizard named Lizzy, whose story begins with a very real dog named Zuri.
“Zuri was my wife’s dog,” Amelia’s dad Kyler Nurmsoo explains. “From the time she was a puppy.”
And when his wife got pregnant, the parents-to-be couldn’t wait to introduce the dog to their baby Amelia. They even took a picture of Zuri posing with a photo of Amelia’s ultrasound photo.
“I met real Zuri (when I was) in my Mommy’s tummy,” Amelia smiles.
Unfortunately, they had to put real Zuri down less than two months before Millie was born.
“That was devastating, to not have the two of them meet,” Kyler says.
So Kyler found a chocolate lab stuffy that his wife brought to the hospital so Zuri could be there in spirit when they welcomed Amelia into the world.
“Eventually, Amelia kind of claimed that (Zuri) stuffed animal as her own,” Kyler says. “And wanted to take it for walks.”
Whenever her dad would take their remaining dog Balou for walks, Amelia would do the same with the stuffed animal Zuri.
“It especially meaningful for my wife,” Kyler says. “But certainly for both of us.”
Despite how caring Amelia was with the toy dog, the girl considered it her parents’ pet, so when Kyler and his wife happened upon a store that was selling a rubber lizard on a leash, they bought it.
“That will be perfect for Amelia to take for walk,” Kyler recalls.
They were right. Amelia and Lizzy have been going for daily walks ever since.
“It makes me feel happy,” Amelia says. “And it makes Lizzy feel happy.”
While Kyler and Balou’s goal during their walks is simply exercise, Amelia and Lizzie are pursuing creative escapades.
“This is Lizzy’s skateboard,” Amelia smiles while placing the toy lizard on a leaf and pulling it as fast as she can.
When Lizzy’s isn’t racing around the sidewalk, the lizard is bravely leaping off large rocks so Amelia can find the encourage to do the same, before magically doing all the four-year-old’s chores.
“(Lizzy) brush my teeth for me,” Amelia imagines with a laugh. “I would get it to clean up my room. Everything!”
Everything but walk that stuffed animal Zuri. Because that is a routine that Amelia still relishes.
It’s a very real dog’s legacy of love, passed down from parent to child to lizard, to everyone who passes by, Amelia hopes.
“It makes people feel really, happy, happy, happy!” Amelia beams.