Lily Bear's Demise

Lily was a sweet heart of a heinz 57 with a little wolf in her, little chow, little German Shepherd and God only knows what else. She was found out on a busy highway in a box as a puppy with her little brother. The finder God bless the friend, thought she would be perfect for Kate whom we had just adopted from China. So here comes the friend with this mess of a puppy and puts her in Kate's lap. Well, how do you get rid of a puppy that your little child has fallen in love with and is the right size for her to hold and cuddle with? I couldn't. Bob wanted to but we didn't. We already had two other dogs, and three cats while living in a small parsonage. But she stayed as Kate's puppy. She was a mess as a puppy, aggressive, ate all the stuffed animals we had or she could find, and barked at everyone. But she still stayed. Then one day it was really bad weather; Lily stood at the window looking out, agitated and making funny noises. Bob went to check out what was bothering her, and there was a tornado just a block away. The dog stayed, and was never to be discusses of removing her again.

Lily was very protective of her kids our children, and loved them. She loved having her back rubbed. She loved going for walks. She also like to run. The minute the gate or a door was left open she was on the loose. The first couple of times we would try to chase her down with no luck of finding her, so we just learned to wait on her return.

After we moved to Florence we noticed she started to have seizures so we took her to the vet. He wasn't sure if she had a brain tumor or epilepsy. He treated her for epilepsy and told us a small tumor wouldn't show up on xray, but would show up when it got big. That was about three years ago, I guess it got big.

One other time in Florence, Lily had gotten agitated and was trying to get our attention about something. We followed her outside and the airconditioner was on fire. Another time she was agitated and wanted us to pay attention and there was another tornado passing by.

When we got back from the vacation we noticed that she was losing big clumps of hair, was cowering, unhapppy and crying in the night. We decided it was time to take her to the vet.
He agreed it was time to put her down.

This morning we had the kids say good bye to her before they left. Katy just hugged and kissed her all over and didn't want to say goodbye. Kara hugged her. Zachary drew a picture of her and wrote her a letter. He then held her for a long time. I talked to her and told her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me and how much I was going to miss her. Bob took her to the vet, held her as she went to sleep and cried and cried.

Bob and I had lunch together and cried about her and told stories about her. Bob told me when he went home, Koda, our other dog was really sad already. Koda and Lily had become best buddies after the other two dogs had died during our time in Wadley.

Thank you God for this little abandoned puppy who grew into a big dog, who loved us and protected us. We will really miss her. Watch over her and watch over us in our grief. Amen.

I don't have pictures of her on this computer, I'll post them later from my home computer.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support.