Pleased with my good fortune I decided it would be fun to foster a dog. After a good deal of searching I came across the Forsyth Human Society. To foster a dog from the Forsyth animal shelter however first it was important I had permission from my landlords. I gave them a call and left a message and a couple days later I received a call from their daughter, Kristin, who coincidentally worked with a small animal rescue league that pulls dogs from kill shelters in North Carolina. After speaking a good bit she told me that she had two dogs in mind for me to foster and set me pictures. One of them really caught my eye. She was a mid-sized black dog with a white chest and paws, a curly tail, and big brown eyes: Lilly.
A week or so later I found myself in the pet store, buying food bowls, dog food, a dog bed (like she would ever sleep in that), toys, a collar and a leash. That night Kristin brought my FOSTER dog, Lilly over and she anxiously ran around the house. Kristin told me a little bit about Lilly's history and that unfortunately she had heartworms. She had been to a vet that had given her a couple months worth of doxycycline to help treat the worms, using the "slow-kill" method. After 45 minutes or so Kristin left and Lilly and I went to bed shortly after. Lilly quickly made it clear she had no intention of sleeping on the dog bed. I slept in a queen, and why would she sleep on a dog bed when there was so much space in my big warm soft bed? Reluctantly I allowed her to do so.
The rest is history. My spring ended up being a whole lot busier than I had originally expected. Although my thesis defense was successful, we would be re-doing the entire statistics section, which would impact both my results and discussion. On top of it I would be working at LIFE, preparing a manuscript to be submitted to the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, the flagship journal of the American College of Sports Medicine and a top-tier journal in the health and fitness industry, and to throw the icing on the cake (or the sauce on the pizza) I would pick up a part-time job waiting tables downtown at Mellow Mushroom. You might expect that with so much already on my plate having to take care of a dog would be just one more unnecessary task. This however was absolutely not the case.
As busy and stressful as my days were this past spring, the one thing that I could consistently rely on was coming home to my happy, tail-wagging, affectionate pup. That's not to say that Lilly and I didnt run into our fair share of issues. Only a couple days after getting her I drove her to the airport to pick up Bri and she puked all over my backseat, more or less ruining the fabric in my car. Not more than a couple of weeks after getting her she went into heat. After some online research Bri figured out that dogs go into heat once every 5-6 months with each cycle lasting between 4-6 weeks. Lilly's of course lasted nearly 8. For nearly 2 months I spent my time changing doggy diapers and praying that she wouldn't chew them off when I left her alone during the day. Oh, and the heartworms weren't going to just go away with a couple doxycycline pills. Heartworms are one of the worst possible diseases for a pet to contract and to get rid of them dogs must receive a number of immiticide injections (a poisonous chemical that kills the worms). Overcoming these issues however only drew us closer. Less than a month after beginning the foster period I decided to adopt her.
Over the past couple of months Lilly and I went everywhere together. Our bond grew strong as we began to understand each other. She followed me around, watching my every move. In the morning she would scarf down her breakfast and then come downstairs to watch me make my lunch and drink my coffee before I left for workouts or to go to work. At night we would sit around watching game of thrones together before retiring upstairs to sleep. Her heartworm treatments were seemingly successful, as she had passed the 4 week danger window following the last series of injections. She began to become more energetic and actually run around like a normal dog. Last week however she came down with a cough. I called the vet and made an appointment for Tuesday but when I came home from work on Monday night her breathing was labored and she was clearly not feeling well. I rushed her to the emergency vet where she was given some medications and put on oxygen to stay the night. Unfortunately early Tuesday morning I received a call informing me that she had taken a turn for the worse.
Getting over the passing of my puppy has been hard for me. Thankfully I have had the support of many wonderful family members and friends, all of whom have expressed their sincere condolences. But why is it that we have such a hard time getting over our pets? This is a question upon which I have been dwelling almost non-stop the past 36 hours. The answer however is simple. It is because of their ability to love completely unconditionally. Some might say that the thing that one of the biggest thing that distinguishes humans from animal is our ability to feel emotions. They have never had a dog. The type of love that a dog shows their owner, that Lilly showed me, is one that we as humans can only strive to replicate. An affection ignorant of faults. Thank you Lilly for gracing me with such infinite love. I'm sure heaven is full of peanut butter and people to pet you. I love you.
"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." - Roger Caras
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