Our sweet Lily girl brought so much fun and good memories into our family over the last nearly 12 years. When I was single I had a trio of three labs, Hailey (chocolate), Cameron (black) and Lily (white) and lived in a huge house. For more than a year and a half it was just me and my girls. Kevin and I met when Lily had just turned three years old and was full of so much energy and spunk. When he would come over, all of the dogs were crazy and they jumped and ran all around. They all were really friendly with really terrible greeting manners, lol. Kevin still mentions how she would jump up on him when he would first arrive and how nuts she was.
Back in the day I allowed all of the dogs on my bed and on the furniture. That has since changed, not only with their aging but also with new house rules. That never stopped Lily from being a great cuddler. As you’ll see in many of the pictures, she was constantly around her people, unless it was super noisy and then she resorted to getting in to small and quiet spaces. We most often found her in our upstairs bathroom closet where she would lay with her head sticking out. As our family grew and we welcomed Griffin and then Reid, she endured so much kids play. She was regularly dressed up into costume and made part of any activity. She was always there for it and allowed our boys to do whatever they wanted to her – always with a gentle spirit. She’d often give them some kisses while they were doing whatever it was they were doing to her at the time. And if she didn’t like it, you guessed it, she’d vanish off to a quiet closet in our bathroom.
On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, the day after our super long bike ride, Lily was having what seemed to be a normal day. I was upstairs in our bedroom doing laundry and when Lily walked in the door from the white steps she seemed to be struggling some. Not sure why, so I went and talked to her and ended up carrying her to her bed in our room as she was pretty shaky. From that point on, she wasn’t ever able to walk again. Being a holiday weekend, we weren’t able to get in touch with our vet. She ate dinner on Sunday, but on Monday and after would no longer eat. Kevin or I carried her outside and back in each time for Sunday and Monday and Tuesday, and on Tuesday afternoon Kevin had made an appointment for her and we took her to the vet. Dr. Shearer did a complete exam on her, taking of 45 minutes to evaluate her. She gave us some possibilities of what could have happened, perhaps an injury to her spine or disk (like slipping down the stairs, which she had done a couple of times in recent months). She proposed a couple of treatments and left the decision to us. We decided her quality of life, even with proposed treatments, would not be ideal. She was unable to stand or walk and no longer wanted to eat. We knew it was time to put her down – but it was still an agonizing time and decision. She was down to only 59 pounds. Our hearts were broken. She was the last of my original trio of three and the ending of an era – so to speak. Even with her bad joints and arthritis in recent years, she made it up and down the steps numerous times a day. She bunny hopped everywhere. She went into each of the boys rooms at night – every night – for bed time routine. She still loved to get outside and bask in the sunshine. She was sassy, had impeccable hearing and sight, and loved playing with Brutus. He’s not known life without her. The house is just strange, even still posting this almost two months after her passing. Her high-alert-barking when we arrive home or someone rings the doorbell is just weird silence. My how we miss our sweet girl.
We had Lily cremated, as with our other girls, and when we picked up her ashes at the vet they included the most kind, hand-made, customized card with notes from some staff members. They also included each of her pawprints, which when I saw them caused the tears to flow. We really love all of the staff at Powell Vet.
We’re thankful for the lovely cards, flowers, and cookies given to us by our family and friends.
