So for my legions of fans and followers, you’ve probably been waiting and waiting for me to post, George R. R. Martin-style. (Ha!) I started this page, and my ancestry research, in May 2018, approximately 1-2 weeks before Mother’s Day, of course planning on doing a lot of research and writing about what I discover and how that impacts me. But then on Mother’s Day weekend of 2018, my life changed dramatically – Lily Louie arrived!
I could have never guessed that a little 7 lb ball of fluff would completely change my life, but she has, and totally for the better. When I first got her, on May 12, 2018, she was probably about 7 weeks old. A very, very young puppy. And it had been 16 years since I had raised a puppy, so things were very challenging, to put it mildly. I slept on an old couch for weeks to crate train her near the front door, cleaned up pee like you wouldn’t believe, and got bitten up like crazy. But, bit by bit it got better, and she matured, and once she hit about 4 months old, it began to be clear that she is an AMAZING dog. I can’t imagine being without her. I gladly drive home at lunch to check on her. I gladly take her to Doggy DayCare, and get her toys, and fill up her special stimulation-food dispensers. I pick up poop piles bigger than my fist sometimes, and when she jumps on me it can hurt, because that little 7 lb fluff ball now weighs about 50 lbs! But she is my dog. I gave up a trip to Monterey because I didn’t want to leave her, so you know I love her.
So where have I been? I’ve been here, but I’ve been distracted. And happy. And it’s funny, I’ve had 4 dogs over the past 18 years, but I really thought I was a cat person. Dogs were okay, but they weren’t anything special. Until Lily. She’s my heart. I love her so much. And so does everybody else, she just has such a great energy that other people can feel. She gets me moving, and smiling, and I can’t feel alone with her.
I’ve been playing with the idea of working with her enough to be considered a “Service Animal” for my Fibromyalgia and anxiety/depression/OCD. I want to be able to take her places with me and not have to leave her home all of the time, and being able to take her on vacation would be awesome. The only negative to it is something Jeff said the other night, what if training her to be so obedient changes her personality? She’s so fun and kind of goofy right now naturally, I know she’s smart enough to be trained, but will it train those lovable qualities out of her? Is that something we’re willing to risk? So that’s kind of where things are right now. She definitely needs more obedience training, she’s bigger and stronger now, so she pulls when she wants, and that could be dangerous for her and me. So I’m hoping there’s a happy balance between a well-trained dog who is specially trained to provide deep-pressure therapy, distraction for OCD and anxiety, alerting me for nightmares, and picking up objects on the floor – but keeping her as her cute and fun self! Stay tuned for updates!
HorseMonkeyTiger 