We lost our good girl last night, Lily, last night and to say it was sudden would be an understatement. It was a normal day around here. She spent her last day like hundreds of other fun days that included taking the kids to school, picking up the kids from school, barking at a door-to-door salesman & looking for scraps to hit the floor. And then my wife came to me around 8:30 last night saying Lily was acting differently, but I blew it off as one of those nights where she decided to be hard-headed and not come downstairs. Next thing I know she’s laying down at my feet as I sat at my work computer — that was her spot, next to me for her daily companionship — and was dead about 5-8 minutes later.
Why? How? She was just shy of turning 10. I guess it could’ve been heart. Blood clot? She had a spot removed from her back about eight months ago but had been doing fine. She didn’t turn down car rides, the chance to run around outside and kept eating as always. It wasn’t like we were preparing to have to make a decision to put her down.
Besides the dog becoming a vital member of your family, the other hard part about this is that I’ve worked at home since selling BC and going to work running it back in 2011. Lily was nearly a year old at the time, absolutely crazy with energy and instantly became my office mate. We would work on eliminating her energy in the morning, she would take her naps at my feet next to the desk, get up, want to do it all over again day after day. She went everywhere with me. Back seat. Head out the window.
Then came the birth of our first son, Jack, and the routine changed a little bit. She didn’t have full run of the backseat in the car on our way to daycare but adjusted to the adversity. Jack’s car seat took up half and she would lay next to him from day one. We would take him to school, go pick him up and she knew when it was time to go by just hearing my car keys. No joke, some of the best days of my life have consisted of windows down, Lily’s head out the window and Jack along for the ride.
Lily was there during dark times too. I was diagnosed with cancer in December of 2013. Just having a dog around made things so much better as I entered very tough, very dark times that lasted a couple of years. She would bring a toy to play and my mind would instantly shift. She would come to my desk, want to do a high-five and my mind would go to a different place. It was incredible to have that companionship in an otherwise empty house. Eventually, time moved on, my health prognosis improved and we got back to happy times.
In January 2017, little Will was born and once again Lily had a change coming. Now the backseat of my car was filled and it was time to turn Lily into a front seat rider. A nearly 80-pound Goldendoodle was now riding in the front seat of a Honda Civic and she was perfectly fine with it. She loved those rides. Wanted to be with me at all times. She knew the drive-thrus that gave out biscuits. She would sit there like a statue facing forward and I’ve lost track of how many times someone would say they thought it was a person sitting in the passenger seat. One time we were driving down the highway and a guy sped up to take a photo of her sitting in the seat.
The final three years of her life were filled with kids keeping her busy, scraps hitting the floor, guarding the front door against people she would attack with licks, watching squirrels climb the trees and backyard exploration that kept her busy before she would find a comfortable spot under a tree to lay and enjoy the breeze. She was at that perfect stage where she was fine running around the yard chasing the ball for 2-3 minutes and then would gladly lay and watch the boys as they played. The dog was so damn smart. Easily trained. Listened so well. I’m very happy with those final three years of her life with our boys.
Life will be so different without her. We’ll miss her dearly.
