Lily, now Lilly #3206
Hi I’m Lilly! I am, as my mom calls me, a wild child! Wheeee! I came in from Beijing with the ‘flower dogs’ at the end of May and was fostered with Pansy . That gave foster mom more time to work with me and with help from my foster brother Teddy I gained more confidence, although she did utter the phrase “I need a glass of wine” often. Hmm.. I love to chase balls and my mom sometimes calls me LillyLillyLillyLegssss because I prance, like a show pony and have long leg feathers.
I have so much fun and I learned very quickly to sit, and that was about it from the get go, I’m just too busy and excited to sit still for long. Thankfully my foster mom was patient with me and then Teddy and I devised a plan for me to stay.
I’ll let my mom tell the rest of the story – I got to go get in some trouble now…..
Well, I think Lilly said a lot without saying much!! And, I’m sure you can tell from her intro I foster failed (again)! She is truly a sweet girl, she loves to cuddle, but also has blossomed into an independent girl. She loves Teddy, they have so much fun playing, and while Teddy tries to teach her to be a good girl, and to not bring sticks, pine cones, the liquid fly bait trap with dead flies in it (I still don’t know how that happened) or grab toilet paper and pull it through the house, she certainly is living the puppy life she didn’t get to have in China. While yes, she is busy and loves toys, sticks (or branches), rocks, pine cones, towels, etc, she is also the best snuggle bug – loves to be close to me and wriggle right in and sleep.
It is rewarding to watch her gain such independence, she loves to sleep on the couch when we all go to bed, but comes in the bedroom in the middle of the night and hops right up, laying her head on me for more snuggle time. She used to have, what I can only imagine, was some kind of PTSD. When she was sleeping if anything was near her or touched her (the blanket accidently touching her or Teddy’s tail barely touching her) she’d bark and growl like “stay away” or try to ‘fight back’ but with more time and love those instances are rare as she just knows she is safe.
She loves her daily walks, and if we miss one (yes, just one) well, that is when she gets mischievous. She has learned to sit and stay, give and drop, although I’m still not sure if given the chance if the front door is open she won’t run out – I imagine though she would run straight to the car as she loves to go for rides– her favorite is Biscuits doggy daycare, although a road trip is fun too. She has lots of toys and her favorite to carry around after breakfast or dinner is her giraffe.
She’s a great ambassadog, along with Teddy – they are sometimes here to greet the arriving dogs from China that overnight in Tacoma; but most of the time, they have a puppy slumber party at Steve and Diana’s house with Emma the golden (and now also Jed – a family member’s dog). They’ve been to meet and greets, the most recent at Microsoft.
I am, as I always am, amazed and blessed to be a great part of Golden Bond Rescue and the wonderful and amazing volunteers who make it all possible, so we can foster, care for, and sometimes foster fail these beautiful goldens. Thank you GBR!
Hi! I’m Lilly (#3206). I arrived full of puppy energy on May 29 from China. I really enjoy playing and running with Teddy, the resident dog. It’s fun because he runs fast like I do so we play chase games in the backyard! I like to keep my foster mom on her toes!! She is also fostering Pansy (#3205).
A note from my foster mom: Lily is a bundle of energy with lots of puppy-isms. She has short legs but her feathers are beautiful and you can see that she knows it by the way she struts her stuff and prances across the yard like a show pony. She loves to take her blanket out of the crate and prance around with it; she proudly takes it outside with her. (She also does this with leashes, pillows and rugs.) She doesn’t really do any harm to anything, it’s just for fun.
Lily walks well on a leash and I’m sure with more practice she can do better. Sadly, having three energetic dogs, two of them fosters from China, has made training challenging at best, but we are working on sit and stay. She did get out the front door (despite having with three people blocking her!) with a ball and thought she could find someone to play with out there in wild, so her new family must be vigilant about gates and doors being left open as she likes to explore.
Lily is very, very ball focused, and loves to retrieve. She brings the ball back proudly and will ‘give’ it to you to throw again. She’s a smart girl who knows where the balls are put away and will try to get to them, or will stay hyper-focused on the area they’re in.
One night, to settle Lily down, I sang “Soft Kitty” from Big Bang Theory to her, but changed the words to, “Soft Lily. Warm Lily. Little ball of fur. Happy Lily. Sleepy Lilly. Grr. Grr. Grr.” I sang while rubbing her belly and chest and she went right to sleep . . . so, clearly, she needs someone who will sing to her. Hahahahahaha! (The “Soft Kitty” song is my go-to with my granddaughter as well.)
I have a dog door, so we haven’t had any issues with potty training although Lily has had a couple accidents in the house. I think it was because her first two weeks here there were a lot of visitors staying at the house, or I was out of town so the house/dogsitters were here and that is when the incidents (just peeing) happened. She has not had any problems when I’ve been home on a consistent basis. I think she simply needed time to adjust to a new environment.
As most dogs from China, Lily was a counter surfer but has been deterred by “bitter apple spray.” She will still get up once while I’m making the dogs’ meals, just to see what is coming, but a stern “off” or “down” does the trick.
She loves to give ‘hugs’ so I’m still working on just giving her a quick one and then asking her to get down or off.
She could benefit from some good fats and oils with her food to help her coat soften up. She has put on a couple much needed pounds and could probably use a couple more.
The ideal family for Lily will be one with another energetic, playful dog as she is very social with other dogs, or an active family that loves to be outside for long walks, some jogging, and lots of retrieving games. Lily is a sweet girl with lots of love to give, loves hugs and snuggles too.
Lily was adopted by her foster mom on August 1, 2019