She's Three Today

Lily Lu turns three years old today. No big plans for a birthday celebration but she will get a special meal later today. I will admit that when we got her I was not on board with the idea of having another dog. Candy Mae had passed away earlier in the year and I was determined not to have another dog. No dog could ever be as good, as loving, as well behaved as Candy.


I wasn't sure I would ever get over her loss. If there is a lesson taught to us by dogs it is that as Forest Gump said, death is a part of life. At some point we are going to lose someone who is close to us. Dogs teach us how to deal with that loss. Mine immediate reaction was to crawl in an emotional hole and try to avoid thinking about her. It was tough because she is buried out in our yard and to go to the mailbox you must walk past her grave. Carol wanted another dog later that summer. Nate was working with me and went with us to look at puppies over in Henderson at Crouse's. They had Redbone Coon Hounds and we let them hunt on our property. Carol loves the smell of puppy breath. So we went to see the puppies and Carol decided she had to have one. She and Nate picked out a little girl and Nate named her Lily. I didn't want anything to do with her because I was still mourning the loss of Candy. I referred to Lily as Carol's dog and tried to stay emotionally distant from Lily. It was a futile effort. Lily could not and would not be ignored. Could she be as wonderful a dog as my beloved Candy. Time would show that she could.

I started walking to lose weight back in September. Lily Lu has been my companion on these walks in Illinois and on Tybee Island. We have logged about 1500 miles together. We have be stopped occasionally on Tybee Island and told that she is the best walked dog on the island. She is always teaching me things. The other day she was in the back yard here in her fence compound. We let her run loose there and dig all she wants. I was calling for her and she wouldn't come to me. I asked if she wanted to go for a walk and she came running. She looks forward to our walks as much as I do. It doesn't seem to matter how far we walk, she still has the energy to go more. She is perfectly house broken. She has adopted Candy's habit of greeting visitors at the door and then going and laying down. She is a shameless beggar for food when we are eating. I have no desire to deny her so she shares in my meals. She sleeps in bed with us. It is much easier at Tybee since the bed there is king size and the one here in Illinois is only a queen. She has no problem stretching out and creating her own space.

 

So Candy Mae taught me about loss. Lily Lu has shown me that even after a great loss there is room to recover and love again. It doesn't mean that we loved Candy any less. It was that there was another companion who needed love and a family. We tell Lily Lu how good she has it. What wonderful parents we are. It is the lie we tell her. We are the lucky ones. The ones who have her unfailing love and devotion. Her constant loving companionship that fills our days. When we got her I couldn't imagine life with a dog other than Candy. I was wrong and Lily Lu was the answer to a fuller, richer life.