Yes, We Have A Dog And Her Name Is Lily
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?"
Why yes, 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.
Thanks Ali! Reading your blog is one of the first things I do every morning - I just love your take on everything about life. So many of your posts have made me laugh, made me cry, made me thing! As simple as this one is, its probably one of my favorite posts of yours!
Our "dog" story is much like yours. First the couple, then the lab, then the child. So many similarities in the pictures even! I can't imagine life without our chocolate lab. She's soon 14, and I know she won't be around forever. I see that I need to document our life with her a little more.
Thank you!
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I too have a black female lab names Chole (coal). She is my husbands hunting dog and loves it for sure. She is sweet and kind and our second lab in the last 20 years. My son now has move out and owns his own home, he too wants a lab. Funny how that goes.
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I truly had no idea you had a dog. Gee, my powers of perception are overwhelming. I've always had labs, too! My current is Fred (almost 11) and we lost Vince at 14 a couple of years ago. Maybe I never noticed her in your pictures because I am so used to Fred just being there.
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Awesome! She is gorgeous, and how cool that she has that special time with your parents. My mom and her dog used to live with my family. He was a German Shepherd named Wotan, and he was a force to be reckoned with! Very persistent with his ball, and he followed me around the house, too. My kids want a dog so badly...I've been trying to get up the nerve to get one.. Thanks for sharing, Ali!
Sorry - it looks like I missed a comma between scary and smart (I didn't) I should have said awsomely smart.
Ha ha! I use that phrase "scary smart"... and I say awesome a lot, too. :) Our problem is we are in San Diego and have a very small back yard that already has a pool. I am not sure I am ready to have a big dog that I would need to walk everyday, and my husband doesn't want a small dog...here we sit on the fence! :)
Debbie - Sheps are easy to train. I recommend females. My husband and I both grew up with sheps, and we've had two together. They are scary smart,loving and protective.
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Our princess pup, Steffi, just turned 11 and she's definitely a people dog too. A very very very pampered people dog. I've had boarders tell me she doesn't think of herself as a dog, but a person. So, I totally get where Lily's coming from. Dogs are awesome companions.
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love the dog photos! I could wallpaper my house with photos of my collie Chloe.
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Love when a dog "wiggles"....when a dog wags his/her tail we call it the "FAN METER". The quicker the wag...the more the dog approves of that person!
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Great puppy post! Today, my dog Rufus turns 6, so the furry ones are on my mind. :)
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Dogs are masters at photobombing... ;-)
Happy week-end!
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Any tips/tricks on the shedding? We have 2 black labs. The shedding puts me in the looney bin on a daily basis.
No tips or tricks. My sil and I have had lots of conversations about this before - they have a yellow/red lab and face the same issues. One thing I love for our hard-woords is a little swiffer vacuum. Super easy + quick to zoom around the kitchen/living/dining/entry areas. Other than that I just go with it :).
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Ali- I have seen your lily in many a photo over the years- We too had labs for most our our childrens lives. Sadly after 16 years we had to put our Jake down. I truely thought I was ready for the task. Afterall he no longer had bowel control, couldn't walk up stairs etc.. you get the idea.. but the day of the event I realized we were loosing more than just our pet and our friend. He was there for ALL the events--hanging quietly under the table or behind the chair... he saw new barbies at xmas, he saw prom dates pinning corsages, he saw hot chocolate after sledding he was there for it all and in the pictures he was barely seen just a tail or a black lump under the table. He watached over my kids from toddlers to dating --unselfishly never being the center of attention.
Dogs are amazing companions.
Vicki - this is just lovely! Made me teary thinking of our dog and all the seeing he has yet to experience with our family! Thanks for sharing.
They really are - I love what you wrote here Vicki.
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I can't live in a house without a big dog. Big dog in our area is anything over 30lbs. but if youask me up to 60 is really only medium sized...
I always thought I would be a shepard-dog person forever, but our dog now,,, he's got short hair and is a wonderful mutt... he's the most cuddly and the most energetic pal.
I am so glad you gave us insight into your Lily.
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Glad we got to see your dogs. We have 2 small dogs and just love them.
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Love the post about Lily and your love for Labs. So sweet.
Question where did you get your red winter coat?
It's from Patagonia. Worth every penny :).
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I loved hearing about Lily. such a cute lab!! We have a yellow lab, Krisco. He's almost 2 years old and more hyper than we planend for. lol I grew up with labs and wanted one for our own family. He's getting better and hopefully soon he can be in more and more. We can only deal with him in for short periods before we are ready to strangle him lol.
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I truly love your story about Lily and other dog family members. We had an Australian Shepherd mix for 14 years. Losing him was so difficult we could not even think of getting another dog. For the last couple of years my heart longed for that bond. The I am so happy to see you and I'll always love you emotion that only a dog can give. In Sep. we found a Bichon/Shih-tzu hybrid. He is exactly what I had been searching for, and we found him within a week of an incident in which I almost died. Obviously he had to be the right one. He is truly adorable and loving, but I shall be happy to get past the wild puppy stage. A small puppy is very different to train from the larger dog we had. I am happy to have my little companion, and dh who resisted a new dog for a long time, loves having the little guy greet him at the end of a long day.
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We love our yellow labs. I love this story. I can relate to so many aspects of Lily. Our Tapioca (Tappy) was very much that person dog. Very sweet and kind. Loved playing with other dogs but preferred to play with people. She passed a couple years ago. Her doghter and granddoghter (whom we own) are so similar and yet so different from her. All in all , they are such a delight and bring much joy to our home, as they, along with 2 cats are our only furchildren.
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Over the years, I have seen what a special girl Lily is in your family and am excited to see her shining today with her own post. I love that she gets to spend some vacation time with her grandparents. I especially liked the photos of Lily with wee Simon in the kitchen and with her grandpa on the beach. Hugs to Lily!
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It was so great to see Lily. I don't remember seeing her in pictures before. I love the picture where she's looking at Anna's snack you can almost read her mind. If I just belly crawl a little closer....Perfect!!
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Loved reading about your dogs and Lily. My dogs are always a part of my life and I can't imagine being without one! I have my Casey on the bed with me right now, snuggling up as I type and snow falling outside. I am curious if you've ever done a dog album? Just on the dog(s). If so, I hope you'll show us someday. Thanks for entertaining us daily.
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She looks like a sweetie Ali. I have a part lab, part Plott hound and he weighs in at 100lbs, very hard for me to handle him but I love him to death.
And an all black, female mini Dachshund who is a true Diva girl.
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AW! i love this Lily post! She reminds me ALOT of our 10 year old chocolate lab Kinja!! (named after a jimmy buffett song:). even down to the gray hair around her mouth. our kids co-exist too. kinja is our first "baby". so cool - thanks for the reminder to document her story too :)
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That's so cute! And I'm sure we have the same photos of Riley (like licking Parker's hand and highchair, running next to his sled, etc). We are so lucky because, like Lily, Riley's an awesome dog & companion! He's 7 and loves all of us. Parker actually just started to call him "Ya-Yee"...so great that he's such a loved member of our family. :) Yeah for doggies!
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I loved seeing your Lily. We have a chocolate lab named Maya. She is incredibly awesome with the kids. My husband and kids wanted a dog for many, many years. We had cats and I really wasn't a dog person. Finally, I relented and we got Maya from Pet A Palooza ( abunch of shelters come together in a park for a big adoption weekend). She was 6 months and my youngest was 1 1/2. She was rolling all over him the minute we took her out of her cage at the event. She instantly warmed my heart. She followed me everywhere and now she is "my dog". She doesn't go to bed until I do, she wakes up when I do and she is great with my kids. There is something about labs. I cannot imagine the day when she will be gone, I know our hearts will be broken forever.
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We also have a dog that is a very important part of our everyday lives. I swear we wouldn't make it if he wasn't here. Thanks for sharing your sweet dog with us.
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