It was mother’s day, 1990…I was about 9 at the time. I begged my parents for years to get a dog, and finally that mother’s day they had given in, all I remember hearing was “we’re just going to look”.
We had gone to a shelter in Long Island, called North Shore Animal League; we walked around and looked at puppies and of course I had fallen in love with all of them…I was ready to leave with a black lab, when this one puppy caught my eye. She was the cutest, most dopiest looking dog in the place. She was sitting in the corner looking at us. I had to go and play with her. I took her out of the cage and played with her.
She was wonderful, and the main thing I could remember was her biting the buttons off of my father’s shirt. I can still hear his voice asking “Are you sure you want this one?” Well needless to say I was very sure and we took her.
Taking her home that day I decided to name her Snuggles, typical yet it fit her so well. She was such a mush. I can remember the day we took her home my father put up one of those baby gates so she wouldn’t wander around the house, as he was putting it up she picked up his screwdriver and started playing with it, she was great…
and we were in love.
Over the years we have had so many memories of Snuggles, or as in her later years “LiLy”. A name my mother just started calling her one day and it stuck. We had countless hours of laughter watching her play soccer, run around the table, demand food,
and just be the most lovable dog.
When she was about 12, we had noticed a change in her, she began getting sluggish and weak. We had taken her to the vet and he did some tests. We found out that her uterus was infected (we never had her spayed). The vet operated on her, but couldn’t guarantee her coming out of it due to her age. We prepared for the worst and hoped for the best, and then there was the good news. She had made
it through the operation.
I remember coming home from school that day and seeing her on her bed. She was still a little weak so she really couldn’t get up, but the next day I heard her clicking around in the kitchen. She was wobbling around looking to be fed.
It was the funniest thing.
She had healed nicely from her surgery and she was back to normal and in no time she was back to her old ways, playing, jumping around, etc…as if she were a puppy again. 🙂
Everything was going good, up until about the end of November 2003. Again, she was becoming sluggish, weak and wasn’t eating, and really couldn’t walk. It all happened over night, so of course we took her to the vet. Again, we expected the worst, the vet was almost convinced that it was just old age and arthritis, until he felt around her stomach. He had felt something hard and decided to take an X-ray.
Well, the outcome wasn’t good. She had a very large tumor in her stomach that was restricting her blood flow. At this point my parents and I were destroyed. The vet suggested that we put her to sleep because it was only going to get worse…and for an operation it was out of the question because of her age. He said she definitely would not make it through this time, and even if she did, the cancer would come back within a month. Left with this decision, my parents and I had left her there 2 nights so she could get some medication and IV.
We had come to the conclusion that we couldn’t put her to sleep if she wasn’t suffering. When we went back to pick her up she was soo happy to see us, she was jumping around and wagging her tail, at this point we knew that putting her down was not an option. We knew that she was eventually going to pass, so we wanted her to be comfortable in her own home, with her family.
That was the beginning of December, the vet predicted a week or so for her to live, so again we expected the worst. A week went by, two weeks went by, by the time we knew it we were already in February and Lily was still going strong, a little weak, but she was functioning, and she was happy. Our love, and a little Coral Calcium had kept her going.
About a week ago, we started noticing a change in LiLy again, and it was very rapid, she wasn’t eating much and she was getting weak. We knew it was coming, but we had our hopes high because she had pulled through for so long…
This morning we had found LiLy and she had passed on, 🙁 we’re all pretty much destroyed, but at the same time happy that she died here at home with us, where we absolutely adored her. I don’t think any of us could have lived with the decision of putting her down, unless she was suffering, and we knew she wasn’t until this past week.
LiLy will always be with us in our thoughts and memories. She is and always will be a part of our family, and we can rest easy knowing that she was with us in her last years, months, weeks, hours, and minutes of her life. We had a great 14 years with her and we will never forget her.
It’s impossible to, because she was
so very special to us.
I’ll always think of you and smile,
and be happy for the time
I had you with me.
*Change is never easy. You fight to hold on and you fight to let go*.
We'll always love you Li
| Snuggles a.k.a *LiLy* |
| Heather |