Yes, We Have A Dog And Her Name Is Lily
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In a post a few days back I mentioned something about letting the dog out or feeding the dog.
More than one person in the comments said, "You guys have a dog?"
Whyyes, we do.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, say hello to Lily. She's nine (just a bit older than Simon) and she's been with us since she was 6 weeks old.
Here she is with our second black lab, Wyatt, and Simon in 2003:
And here she is in 2004:
Lily is the reason we will always have female dogs from now on. She's kind and gentle and loyal and just gets a tad-bit excited when someone comes to visit.
My Dad had a black lab growing up: Mac The Knife.
I grew up with a black Lab - Mac The Knife Jr.
Labs have always been a part of my life.
Lily is the third black lab to live with Chris and me.
A couple years after Chris and I were married we brought our first black Lab pup home: Eddie. Eddie was killed in an accident before he was two. It was a terribly sad, heartbreaking experience.
After Eddie, we knew we wanted another dog. We found Wyatt online and drove to Northern California to pick him up. Wyatt had more of a "person" personality than any of other dogs. Seriously. He was four or five when picked him up and he lived to be about nine. He got to live out the last few years of his life at the beach with my parents.
Lily came to live with us right around the time that Wyatt did - so for a number of years we had two dogs. Which was interesting in our small living quarters with a new baby.
Lily is awesome. She's really all you could want in a dog.
Once a year Lily goes bird hunting with my Dad in eastern Oregon.
This year, before heading to the other side of the state, Lily went to Grandma and Grandpa camp for some conditioning work. She's getting up there in years and needs a bit of physical training to get her in shape for the rigors of hunting. When she goes to Grandpa and Grandma camp she goes crabbing in the boat with my Dad. He throws tennis balls for her over and over again. They go out exploring in the sand dunes.
Needless to say, when she sees my parents pull up to our house she gets really excited and I think she probably wants to go home with them.
When they get over to the east side of the state it's all business.
Some years there are other dogs along for the adventure.
She totally loves it and she's great at retrieving the birds.
After a long day of hunting out in the crazy weather she usually gets a nice warm bath and then gets to sleep with my Dad on the bed.
Around here, Lily is my daily companion. Most of the time you can find her here with my in my office or she follows me around the house as I do this and that.
Neither of the kids have an extra-special bond with her. It's more of a co-existence. Simon's gone through periods where he wanted to cuddle with her (and she's happy with that for sure) but it hasn't been an ongoing thing.
As I was looking for photos with Lily in them I had to laugh because we have lots of photos where part of Lily is in the photo. Photos like this:
And this one where she's in one of her favorite spots under the table (in our old house):
Most of the time she's hanging out waiting for a snack:
Here she is on the move (that's Wyatt in the foreground) back in 2004 or 2005:
She's definitely a people dog. She wants to hang out and she wants to stay close to home (both Eddie and Wyatt were always interested in wandering). She barks really loud to let me know when someone is out the door and then wiggles and wiggles and licks the person who ends up on the other side of the door.
She's an awesome dog. Love you Lily-girl.
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125 comments
Reminds me of my black lab, Buddy. He lived to be 15 1/2, followed me around the house all day and was a people dog as well. He rarely barked but was totally fond of blondes (yellow labs) and Belle, a neighbors black lab. I sure do miss hem.
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Such a great post, and potential layout. I just wanted to make my photo OTD of my Cocker Spaniel who follows me around. We had a pair of huskies before her. They were awesome. I love how you enrich Lily's life with excursions. And your Dad, he just sounds amazing!
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I love that your parents are the perfect Grandparents, even for your dog. I'm (quite obviously) not a dog but the appeal of Grandma and Grandpa camp sounds pretty awesome.
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I was thinking the same thing!
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Thank you for this post on Lily. I knew you had her just not the story about her. What a great dog she is to everyone. My kids have begged for years to get a puppy but I'm not much of a dog person. Last fall while out at a garden center for fall activities there were 8 puppies in a pen "FOR FREE" of course and this little guy stole my heart along with the kids. I couldn't say no this time. So we've had him almost 4 months and he is a people person for sure. He loves loves having the kids home and cries/whines/barks on Monday mornings when they go back to school. He follows me around all day, at my feet of course. Everyone is very attached to him and he's part of the family. He is also a mix of black lab and maybe german shepard we think. Thanks for sharing this story and about your grandparent camp, so funny.
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We adopted a lab 8 years ago---LOVE her....but, don't love the hair! I know you're not a house cleaning site, ;D but how do you solve that in your home!?
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No love for the hair here either. I think I've just gotten used to it and accepted it as part of life :). For some reason it feels not as bad in this house...even though I'm sure she sheds the same amount. Having hardwoods in much of the downstairs makes it a bit easier to see to sweep + clean.
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Wow! Now I want a black lab!
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Nice post. Perhaps you should do a mini album about your dogs. It's for sure not for your kids (as you wrote about their interest in the dogs) but for you and Chris.
Picture 8 (you and Simon and Lily in your office) and picture 11 (Anna exploring your scrapbooking supplies) is really interesting for me. I have an almost 14 months old little one and she always wants to play with and explore my crafting supplies. Often it is a mess or too small for little ones or she "tastes" them or damages them in one or another way. How do you manage to "save" your supplies from little fingers and mouths and keep them "alive"? I always have to put the stuff away and lock the drawers and so forth or put them high so she can't reach them. Maybe in a future post you can tell us how you live with your solution for this situation. Maybe you just tell us "I have the same problems like you" but that would be nice to read, too. ;)
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Hi Franziska - my approach with my supplies has usually been to make nothing off-limits (except anything that could hurt them of course - sharp things most specifically). I found with Simon if I let him check stuff out and "play" with whatever he was attracted to at the moment it demystified the room for him and no battles ensued. I've got photos of him when he was Anna's age sitting on a chair in my office playing with small little brads - he's a different kid obviously ;).
Anna likes to come in and stamp. She sits down on the floor, I give her a piece of cardstock, a little ink pad, and let her pick a couple of stamps. Within a few minutes she is on to something else :).
thanks, Ali, unfortunately our little one is always interested in my drawers and materials - again and again and again :)
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We have a black lab named Molly (6) and a golden retriever (7) named Morgan. They are the best dogs--they let you know when someone is at the house while wagging their whole body! :) Like you, we have tons of photos with them partially in the photo because they are always on the move! Unless of course they are patiently waiting for a treat! My favorite pictures of them are where they are sitting or laying patiently by either side of my daughter's high chair just hoping for bits to fall!
Thanks for sharing the story of Lily!
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Our Lily's name was Marley. And Marley was a he. And Marley wasn't really ours.
He belonged to our neighbors at the lake, 2 houses away and we spent every weekend with him for 7 or 8 years. He was an outside dog; they didn't keep him inside - he slept under their house (with Hooch, his constant companion until Hooch died about 4 years after we got the house).
Then Marley sort of became "ours" every weekend - he visited us every day, sat/slept on the dock with us all summer, slept on our hearth all winter (every weekend), slept on our front steps when he stunk of lake water and we didn't want to let him in the house.
We didn't see him for a couple of months one winter and we sort of really hoped they'd seen the light and were keeping him in during the bad weather.
But he had died. They found him outside somewhere; we never heard the whole story.
And Marley has left a hole in our hearts the size of one giant Black Lab, a hole that will never be filled.
We miss you, Marley!!!
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We have a Lily and a Sadie - both Golden Retrievers. They are also good "doorbells" and welcoming crew. Their best dog friend is my parents' black lab, Rudy. Dogs definitely add some spice to life!
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mmmmm....we are a lab family too. well not me - i have two airedales. ollie and delilah. they get very excited when the
doorbell rings. my brothers have labs. shawn has yellow and casey
has the black lab. his first was chauncey. when my oldest daughter was little we would hook up an old porcelain tub to him, plob cheri' in it and chauncey would take her on rides through the winter corn fields. labs are good dogs.
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I've always noticed Lily. Mostly because we have a female yellow lab that I could have written this post word for word about. (Well, except the hunting part, but she does want to go to grandparent camp I think!)
Mine is right here where we are every morning. At my feet, under the computer desk, space heater pointed at her, and checking the news and blogs.
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Awesome post!!!! The photos of Lilly 'somewhere in the photo' are what life is all about...love it...
The photos of Eastern Oregon crack me up.. that's where I'm at! On a ranch, near North Powder/Haines... off the Anthony Lakes Highway... headin' to Pendleton today!
And yes, since I am on a ranch, we have LOTS of dogs..but no house dogs.. ours are 'the hired help'. But my daughter does a good job of making them kid sitters too! The closest we have to a house dog is Ernest, he is also older than our kids - kids are 12 & 13. He will be 16 this year and he has a special spot in my heart... my 'first' baby:)
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awwww she's a sweety. i have a BL too. his name is Murphy. couldn't have asked for a better dog. he's my shadow. nearing 12, he's starting to show some age though. a few vet. visits ago, they detected a heart murmur. poor guy is starting to show signs from it. very hard 'knowing'. =( with one, he can make all my worries disappear. =)
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love love love this post. We have two golden retrievers (one a puppy we rescued at Christmas time). They are the joy of my life, my little golden princes.
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We have a dog named Lily too! She's a mix though - german shepherd, maybe a little lab, not really sure what she all she is. Started out as our son's dog but she was left behind with us when he took a job in Seattle. We love her and she's a great companion!
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It's nice to meet you, Lily.
When my twin brother was deployed to Afghanistan a few years ago, my parents become guardians of his yellow lab - Beamer. Once my brother was back home safely, my dad refused to give the dog back - which was OK since my brother didn't have the easiest lifestyle for a dog. Beamer is THE SWEETEST dog I've EVER KNOWN!
Labs are GREAT!!!
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So happy that you wrote about Lily - I was wondering how she was doing. We are a two-dog family and in a smallish house with two kids it does get a little cramped and furry!! I do lots of vacuuming!! Our latest doggy addition is Hudson. He is a Labradoodle - he's two - he's more lab than poodle - he's black and so, so incredibly sweet - we call him a 'little man in a furry suit'.
I can totally see why you love labs :)
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As a pet portrait artist, this post touched my heart. I love when people celebrate their pets. May Lily live a long, happy life!
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I always call my parents house Camp for my dog too! I have a newfoundland and my parents live on a lake, so she loves going there! I wonder sometimes if she would prefer to live with them, but then she comes home and seems awfully happy to lay down in her favorite spots. Cool hunting pictures too, it's great that your dog is able to do what it was bred for on occasion!
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