Darling Lily, Every Day Is A Good Day

Yesterday we lost our dog  Lily. I can’t believe I’m saying that because she was our youngest dog. The Doctor thinks it was acute kidney failure brought on by bacteria, virus, cancer or whatever. Point is they shut down.

We just survived a trip over mountains, rivers and through dark of night. Then we get here and our youngest dog gets sick. Just an intestinal drama, nothing we haven’t seen before. Nothing some chicken & rice won’t fix. Not this time.

If you don’t know Lily’s story here’s a summary. She was literally thrown to the wolves by her chickenshit puppy mill owners because an inspection was coming. Only her and her sister survived and they were taken in by a rescue and we adopted Lily from them. When we picked her up her fur was so thick she almost looked like a sheep and was a little smelly. It didn’t matter, we were already in love with her.

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This pic Jan snapped of Lily on our trip really shows the happy fun loving little pup we got to know.

The four years and four months we had Lily were the best of times and the worst of times. Puppy mill survivors have serious PTSD. She would freak out at the slightest movement or sound. Even after she got to know us she still would not let us stand behind her. She’d always find a way to circle behind you. Because of this skill I nicknamed her Nightcrawler. Cockers are known for having weak bladders but we ended up taking her out every hour because being raised in a cage she was still new to the whole housebroken thing. Only in the last two years or so have we been able to leave home for three or four hours without wondering if there will be a puddle. She made huge strides in the last few years. She would actually wag her tail and be playful with her brothers when it was just us hanging out.

The rescue told us she was 2-3 years old back in 2012 so that would make her 6-7 now, but our new vet thinks shes more like 8-9 based on her teeth, which we did a dental on in 2012 but now she was in need of another. The things this dog went through were horrendous. In addition to the puppy mill she had heartworm. They gave her two rounds of that heartworm medication because the first round didn’t kill all the heartworms. That medicine is toxic as hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with damaging her kidneys.

Even though this is a stunning and tragic event in our lives, we had a moment of clarity as we sat in the backyard having a kombucha toast in Lily’s honor. For Lily every day was a good day. She escaped a prison and landed in a place where she had both human and animal companionship as well as unconditional love. She learned what is is to play, receive treats and frolic in the snow for the first time.

We had 4 years and 4 months with Lily which isn’t as long as we imagined we would have with her, but I know she appreciated every day she had with us. She worshiped Janet and would often wait by the door when she was gone. When there were thunderstorms or fireworks then she would come and hide near me or jump on my lap. A day that I will always treasure is the day we spent in Billings Montana at the Motel 6 on our trip to Washington. We didn’t arrive until 6:30 am and were just beat to shit. We decided to push everything back a day and just spend the whole day sleeping. Janet, me, Odie, Herbie and Lily all piled into a queen size bed. Best sleep of my life.

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Odie was a huge part of Lily’s development. Since she was so afraid of people, he made it a lot easier for her to lean on him as a big brother.

Sometimes I think I’m done, all cried out. Then I’ll think about her or mention her name and it starts all over again. That’s when I remind myself that we gave her a great life. I think a lot of people would have returned her to the shelter given all the baggage that came with her. They would never have gotten to see the beautiful dog she became over the years. Her sweet kind spirit will always be with us.

There are many organizations that oppose puppy mills, here are a few.

 

Introducing Champ & His Ongoing Diplomacy Training

Champ is a wonderful seven year old cocker spaniel that we have been boarding for just over a week now.  In a previous home he has got along well with one cat, even sleeping with him.  Our home has three cats.  Zen and YoYo may run from dogs and Zen will even growl at a dog if she is threatened or chased, so we found Champ needed some help and training so that he could adjust and live peacefully with our cats.  He never had an obvious desire to kill our cats, but he did think it was OK to chase them at top speed, which started some trouble with our cat Zen who was not amused at all.  Also he would stare at the cats nonstop while panting, and this was pretty unnerving for the cats.  Initially we thought the staring was love at first sight, but we quickly realized it was a dominance & vigilance play to keep staring at them for minutes on end.

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The Goal: the cat (Bambi) walks calmly & Champ relaxes

To begin his gentle training, we needed to keep him on a loose harness and leash and gave him treats of boiled chicken when he displayed calm behavior and gave us his attention near one of our cats.  Bambi was the easiest cat for us to work with, since she is able to walk slowly and calmly near him as long as he does not charge her.  In the beginning he would have chased even Bambi.  The first photo is from this morning proving just how far he has come with his dog-cat diplomacy training in just one week.  Bambi is doing her classic calm walk by him, and he remains relaxed and lying down.  They have been doing fine for days now, which is why he is off of any restraint near her.

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Champ & Bambi: peacefully ignoring each other. Progress!

In the second photo we see them totally ignoring each other, which is a sign of their growing trust and acceptance of each other.  We still are working with and supervising Champ when he sees YoYo on the ground or Zen on the ground.  We have another few days with Champ for this visit, so we’ll see how far we can get with his dog-cat diplomacy training.  He’s such a good boy and thanks to the treats he does learn.  Also he loves massages around his ears and on his whole body, so that’s another method of persuading him.  🙂

I finally put categories for each blog post, so to read old posts about our dog boarding, see the Categories section on the right and look for Dogs.  For more info on our home dog boarding, see our website at www.BarneysHomeDogBoarding.com.

Teddy Returns: Dog Cat Diplomacy Summit

Back on 3/2/11 I blogged about Teddy who is a maltipoo rescue dog we boarded last year, who helped inspire us to board dogs regularly as a home business with our www.BarneysHomeDogBoarding.com.  Here’s the old post from March 2 about how much we love Teddy.

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Who knows when inspiration will jump into your lap? 🙂

Well after a long hiatus Teddy is back!  Here is Teddy today jumping into my lap.  Today he had a nice car ride with us, a few walks in today’s sunshine, and he is about to dine on the raw food that his parents left with us for him to eat.  He also had a good time stirring up the next door neighbor’s three chihuahuas by sniffing them through our fence and having a barking party with them.  🙂

Teddy is pretty cat friendly since we were able to give him socialization to cats by boarding him earlier in his puppy life.  Unfortunately one of our cats YoYo runs away scared from him, and he still finds it very fun to chase him.  The other two have a moderate truce with him, and have taught him to be respectful of them.

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Dog-Cat Diplomacy Summit

Here I am with Teddy today letting him nose kiss the cats in a safe non-chasing environment.  The cat in the right foreground is YoYo who still runs from him when they are both on the ground.  There has been progress though.  At the end of YoYo’s run to higher ground his tail is no longer fluffed.  He doesn’t really think Teddy is about to murder him anymore.  In his (fear-distorted) mind Teddy is no longer a huge monster, just a mean doggie.  It’s progress!