lily

yesterday marked the end of a tumultuous 2 year relationship with lily. lily was our boston terrier. it was very much a love/hate relationship, mostly love, but when the hate came, it was vicious...she was a beautiful dog, in her own ugly sort of way. she loved to cuddle, loved to lick, loved to defecate on the floor when we didn't pay enough attention to her. but we loved her. she was a sweet dog. she loved makena, and recently she loved bella. makena regularly jumped on her, twisted her legs, pulled her hair, pushed her off the couch...etc...but lily just wagged her tail and ran back for another round of abuse. she would snuggle up next to bella while she slept on the bed and lick her hand whenever she got close enough. she loved to beat the snot out of hudson (our boxer). hudson would mostly tolerate her as she jumped on him, bit his neck, forced him to play when he didn't want to, and slept on top of him, literally on his back. hudson loved her, but not in a deep and intimate way. more in the way an uncle loves his bratty nephew/niece. you kind of have to tolerate them even though they drive you nuts, and you love them because they are family, but if you could choose your family, you wouldn't have chosen that one. ya, that is a good description of how hudson loved her. he wouldn't have picked her out of the other dogs at the petland window, but he loved her because she was his family. she was our family. and we miss her desperately today. but we know we did the right thing. we didn't have time for her. we got too frustrated with her. and she'll have a better life now. we gave her to a retired lady who will spend all day cuddling her, and she even has another boxer named AXL to keep her company. so we know she is in good hands. it would have been selfish of us to keep her. but it doesn't take away this feeling in the pit of my stomach. this hole i feel in my heart.

thanks for the memories, lily. you were a good dog. you were loved.