Lily Bird
Combining Photo Friday with a story…
Got an email from an old dane friend asking about our long ago foster, Lily. That got me thinking about her. Lily was caught in the Gulf Coast Hurricane pile up of 2005. Most folks know it as Hurricane Katrina. She survived 2 weeks locked in a flooded home before being rescued and brought to a shelter. She had worn her nails to the bloody ends trying to get out and her feet were swollen and infected from weeks in water. She had many little wounds and skin problems from all that water, much of her fur was lost when her skin became water logged. She had lost more than 50 lbs. As part of Dane Rescue at the time, Jack and I drove to Slidell, LA and brought her home for extended fostering due to her huge surgical scars ( she had GDV surgery while in the shelter) and her fear/aggression issues toward men and other animals made being in the shelter a nightmare for her and her keepers.
Lily jogs by camera
Lily had issues, there is no denying that, she once heard gunshots and without missing a beat turned and attacked a nearby tree. But she also was one of the most loving and playful danes we have ever fostered. She loved squeeky toys! She was very careful with her toys and never put a hole in any. She arranged them in rows in her crate and only one…her moo-cow was special enough to be used as a pacifier. She had moments of tension. Many caused by our Cat AJ who loved to dance around her crate and put his paws through the bars to scratch at her ears and tail. ( Yes, the same AJ who recently returned from the vet as a miracle cat. Maybe he was working through some Karma?) So she sucked her pacifier cow to calm herself.
Lily loved to play a game called Lily-ball. 3-5 cheap rubber squeeky toys a Nerf bat, plus Lily and the game was on!! Throw the squeekie toy up and hit it with the ball and run to base. If she gets the ball and tags you with it before you get to base, you are out! Lily got a lot of outs at first, but because she was so greedy she wouldn’t drop the “balls”. With her mouth full of squeeky toys and trying to pick up juuuuust one more… she got slow and the base runners took advantage. Eventually she would have all the squeeky toys in a corner of the field. Pick one up, drop another. Repeat. Hilarious! This is when the inning would be called. All the squeekies gathered up. (Lily knew “drop it” very well, if you were standing on a squeekie toy!!) Then we would start again.
Lily and Moo-Cow
Lily loved games. Once the boys put a squeeky Fish on a fishing pole and cast it out into the yard past Lily’s face. I think she drug them both through the grass like she was a Marlin in the ocean!! They learned to let the tension off the line and “play” their “keeper” until she got tired and needed a drink!
Lily with fish, getting a drink. She put it in the bowl with her, because she is greedy! LOL!
We lost our Lily to surgical complications. She was being spayed so she could return to her home in Louisiana. We were trashed by losing her and letting down her owner who waited more than a year to be reunited with her. It took that long to rebuild his house so she could go home. I thought losing my Great Danes was terrible, losing someone else’s after promising to keep her safe was beyond terrible. It would be years before we fostered another.
Lily taught us a lot about training out aggression in Great Danes and even more about living in the moment. We also learned to view her aggression without personalizing it. Her fear fed off ours at first. When we got that settled out, we could help her sort our her fears. She went from wanting to tear Jack’s throat out to sitting in his lap in a course of a day, not being trained, just being and they bonded. They were fast friends but it was forever. She knew 10 minutes before his car could be heard that it was time for Daddy to come home. She literally DANCED in her crate while I got the other dogs situated so she could go out to meet him. When she saw him come through the gate she DANCED even more!!
The UPS man was a different story. He had to stay on the other side of the gate for a long, long time! In fact, he might still be out there! LOL!
We called her Lily Bird because she whistle/whined instead of barked when she wanted to be loved on. Its sounded just like birdsong. The most beautiful sound!
The photo in the LO below is from an after game party we were having with the garden hose. Lily got wet…she didn’t like water much…go figure? And she gave me this look. I went to get the camera and she stayed that way!! Let me take the photo and everything! Miraculous!
I used Kim B Designs Mezzaluna Kit for the papers and Kim’s newest Grab Bag for the elements.
Get yours…some yummy good stuff inside!
I am sure you all know the drill by now, but just in case, this is how this Mini-Grab Bag thing works. Now, through Sunday you can get this mini grab bag with 4 full size products inside for only $4. After that, each product is revealed on Kim’s Blog throughout the coming week and go on sale individually in Kim’s Store as they are revealed.
One more photo of Lily Girl…
Happy Friday!
Happy Father’s Day for those celebrating on Sunday!
Edited: June 19th, 2009