okay, so i know those of you following along are like whoa. wait a minute? who’s this Lily? where. is. Pennies??? excellent question, y’all. in just the way that sometimes, you don’t choose a dog — the dog chooses you — sometimes, you don’t get to choose the name either. even if you’re four and a half and know everything in the world. sometimes, the name your dog arrives with is just perfect and to change it would utterly disrupt the balance of the Force. or something like that.
so last Saturday morning, as planned, we arrived at the Atlanta Humane Society right after they opened for adoptions at 11:00. many of the puppies we’d seen online earlier in the week were already gone. after a quick peruse of all the pens, Miss Girl knew Lily was the one. she was the only one we had a meet and greet with. and the only one that stole all our hearts simultaneously. after a couple hours worth of getting to know each other and filling out paperwork, we were officially a family. and after asking many times just to be sure, whether we should rename her Pennies as had been planned for weeks, Miss Girl gave a resounding no. Lily she was and Lily she would stay.
she a 20 pound, 4 month-old retriever mix. we quickly determined that mix is definitely beagle. her voice says it all. but she is sweet. so sweet. she snuggled on the sofa with Spy for pretty much the remainder of Saturday. what a life — on both counts. and i was a little perplexed at how calm she was. but what the heck do i know? i’ve never had a puppy. it totally made sense to me that she needed time to adjust, get comfortable with us and her new surroundings and make sure this wasn’t a temporary stop on the way to somewhere else. she had no accidents in the house and her first night, she slept on the bed with us, not even waking to go out until 5:00 in the morning. piece of cake, i thought. having a puppy was so totally no big deal.
then Sunday after buying out the entire PetSmart with the whole family in tow — an adventure in and of itself — we got the call. at the shelter, we’d hung out with a young couple adopting who we assumed was Lily’s brother. they’d never had a dog, much less a rescue and had a thousand questions about what to expect. at the end, Spy gave them his card in case they wanted to ask him anything else. when the husband called on Sunday, it was to let us know that their puppy had shown symptoms nearly immediately upon arriving home and had just been diagnosed with Parvo. it’s (generally) an intestinal virus that can be pretty serious. ugh. did this explain her utter calm? was it really lethargy? her poo was fine. but she hadn’t eaten much. oh, my. what now?
long story short, we got her into the vet on Monday. she had a slight fever and elevated white blood cell counts, but they couldn’t confirm or exclude that she had Parvo. they gave her some fluids under the skin (so weird, but we’re used to that process with Parker and his ailing kidneys) and sent us home with instructions to keep an eye on her for a week.
it’s only 2 days later, but i’m incredibly happy to report that the fluids have worked wonders and she’s acting like a normal puppy now! i’m incredibly unhappy to report that she’s acting like a normal puppy now! she is running around like a maniac, forgetting she is kind of potty trained already and waking us (me) the past couple nights wanting to go out and/or play from like 12:30 until about 2:30 in the morning. i am headed out for an overnight business trip tomorrow and absolutely cannot wait to get into a king-sized bed all by myself and sleep a full 8 hours without any creatures (snoring husbands included) to wake me!
Clara seems fine with the situation for the most part. she is getting more bona fide walks and treats than she has in years. Parker has been pissed, but finally asserted his alpha cat-ness and got up on my pillow last night as usual — at least for a while. Miss Girl is beyond excited to have a playmate to chase her and is actually being really responsible about feeding Lily and letting her out.
Spy and i have both been pretty overcome the past few days with how full of love our household is. i’m always amazed how much more love there seems to be in all our hearts to welcome someone new into our lives and in this case, into our family. we are truly lucky and i swear i will try to remember that with every sleepless night, every inside wee-wee, every chewed up whatever and every poo i have to pick up. welcome to our crazy little family, Lily!