Lily's Story, a shaggy dog tale -The Final Chapter (an Original short story)

dodders007 (55)in #dog • 8 years ago

Lily is a Yorkshire Terrier x Apricot Poodle. This is the final episode (8) of the story of how she has changed our lives

Flo is now just over three. Lily and Flo are inseparable, mainly down to Flo following like a big shadow. Flo loves Lily with a passion and hates being too far away from her. Lily, as always, is her own aloof, pretending to be slightly indifferent, self. She does hate it when our pack is split up though and hangs back on her lead until we are all together again. Flo is a big powerful dog who will go anywhere for a ball and is the best swimmer on the beach. Lily is more delicate, likes to be dry and prefers seaweed to balls, which are a little too big for her mouth.

We have to stand well back when Flo shakes as she has a catchment area of saturation of at least 15 feet! Every day at low tide we walk on the beach and enjoy the pleasure of dog energy. Lily takes a bit more time snoozing in the shady hollow we have made her on Watergate beach while Flo is still rushing around getting very sandy ...

As Lily has got older we have noticed her teeth being a bit grubby. We have booked her in at the vets for a clean and I drop her off on my way to coffee with a friend. The vet does a blood test to make sure everything is okay with her before they give an anaesthetic. I have said goodbye to her in the car as I know she is a little elderly. The vet rings to say they can't clean her teeth as she has a kidney problem. I pick her up and she is jolly happy to see me, although her breath is still a bit whiffy! Off we go home with a bag of renal friendly Science Plan dog food.

I am on the internet straight away to check out all the things we can do for her to help with the weak kidneys. Raw food seems to be the way forward and we call in to the pet shop for some green tripe (smells worse than dog's breath by miles!!!) Flo and Lily both love it.

Lily starts to spend more time lounging around, she loves bags, here is a couple of photos from her 'Bag Lady Phase'

The laundry bag, waiting to go on holiday:-

I suddenly noticed her helping with the Christmas wrapping:-

Here she is helping to fit the new kitchen:-

Lily spends a lot of time sleeping now, and she suddenly seems older. We realise she has been our best friend for 12 years and she is over 13. We both spend lots of time cuddling our girl but it is a very quick decline and when she is sitting upright on the bed in the middle of the night we know it is time to say goodbye. The vet is wonderful and gives us lots of time to tell Lily what a fantastic dog she has been. She is very calm and has a peaceful parting from us. We are broken hearted.

Even Flo seems to understand that everything has changed and over the next couple of weeks becomes very depressed. She no longer wants to stay on the beach playing with other dogs and she sniffs the spot where Lily's bed used to be. We cry alot, it is a very sad time.

Lily now lies by the stream with her very own white Calla Lily to flower next to her and we have a vase of Tiger lilies in our kitchen which remind us every day that we shared the life of the best dog in the world.

RIP Lily doodledog 25 May 2002 - 26 July 2015

This is how we remember you ...