Lillie, I'll miss your snuggles

She had me at the first pet!

Eight years ago, as I was walking through "Adopt a Pet Day" at Petsmart, I saw this somber Lab-Boxer mix dog standing there nervously wagging her tail. I petted her head and then turned to leave and she followed me! I'm sure she followed others, but at that moment, I felt she chose me. I began to talk to the people from the shelter about her.

 I was a good wife and didn't bring her home right away, but I went immediately to John and began singing the praises of this orphaned dog. We took Layla and went back to Petsmart. They got along pretty well, so we left with the new dog. She had been called, "Carla", no one in our family liked that name, so I chose Lillie, and Lillie she became.

The first hour there was some jockeying for power between her and Layla, but they quickly settled down and have been best buddies for the past eight years. Layla's first love is food and Lillie's first love is attention, so they got along beautifully.

Lillie loved to cuddle. She would lay still for hours if someone would pet her. She adored being petted. She really didn't know how to play, but boy could she love! When Abbey and Elijah came into our lives, she accepted them and was never anything but gentle with them.

Lillie did have her issues. I often wondered how hard her life was before she was ours. She absolutely could not stand to be confined or left alone. Those idiosyncrasies were often hard to live with. Many times John and I said, "We made a commitment to this dog, and we're not abandoning her again." We tried crating her...she broke through the metal bars (along with several of her teeth). If we inadvertently locked her in a room by herself, she would shred whatever she could get her claws and teeth on. We reached a compromise by putting her outside whenever we left the house and making sure someone was in the room with her at night.

A couple of years ago, she started displaying some hip deterioration, getting up and down the stairs wasn't easy. She started not being able to control her bowels, then this week, she became incontinent. She also has had some situations of strange behavior. All of these health issues led us to the vet today. With tears in our eyes we listened to him tell us that what we had suspected...she was just going to continue to go downhill, and it would be more humane to say goodbye to her now.

Right now, I feel like I don't ever want another dog. It's just too darn hard to say goodbye! I'm sure I'll change when my heart has healed, but right now my it just plain hurts!

I'll miss you, Lillie Billie!

Lillie 

2001-2012

She even put up with us doing things like putting shades on her!