Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Lily The Chihuahua - Hero Of The Day!


A True Story from March 17, 2009.
I changed the names to protect their privacy.
Lily the Chihuahua lives with a family consisting of an 80 lb, eleven month old Burnese Mountain Dog, a 30 lb, 3 month old Black lab, the husband, the wife and a 17 month old toddler.
Lily is the eldest and the Matriarch of the three furry playmates, and as such keeps the two younger ones in line.
Lily is happiest when she is either on your lap being petted, or curled up on a blanket just like in the picture.
Everyone has probably seen the dog and the cat movies where one of them will take charge and lead the others back to safety or even back home when they end up miles away. Some pets will alert their owners when there is a fire.
Well, this is a true story of Lily the Chihuahua. She is my Hero of the Day.
Early Tuesday morning, March 17th, the husband went to check on the Burnese and the Lab before he left for work. The Lab and Burnese prefer being in the backyard now that the temperatures are in the 60's. Normally, the two of them greet the husband as soon as he opens the back door. However, this morning they didn't. The husband looked over at the gate leading out of the backyard and it had been knocked down.
The two dogs were nowhere to be found. He immediately began driving around the neighborhood looking for the two of them, but was unable to find them. He called the vet to let him know they had run off so that if someone found them they could be notified by scanning the embedded chip. The husband finally had to leave for work.
All three of the dogs know the neighborhood really well from being taken on regular walks. They are very good about staying around in the front yard when the husband is out working on the yard or cars. However, the young lab has a ton of energy and probably started following her nose. Although the Burnese is a very large dog, she is really laid back and was likely a willing partner to go exploring.
All this time, Lily has been in the house. She likes to stay warm and cozy and doesn't like to lounge out on the grass until the temperatures are in the 80's. The wife decides that maybe Lily can help find the two dogs. She takes Lily out onto the front porch and sets her down. Now Lily would much rather have stayed inside, so she decides to just sit there on the front porch for awhile. Lily recognizes that she can't hear her two friends and they aren't anywhere in the yard. In a few minutes, Lily heads down the street and out of sight.
About 20 minutes later, Lily returns with the little Black Lab, but the Burnese is nowhere in site. The black lab is wet and muddy. The wife puts the lab into the house but stays out front with Lily.
Lily again heads down the street out of site. Once again, about 20 minutes later, Lily returns bringing the Big furry Burnese with her.
No one knows how far away the Lab and Burnese were, and no one obviously knows what Lily had to do to get them to return. There are however a couple of things that are certain.
1. Lily brought the rowdy black Lab puppy back home. Was the Burnese there too when she found the lab and wouldn't the Burnese follow? Did Lily decide to bring the lab puppy home and go back for the Burnese?
2. Lily brought the big furry Burnese home. Was the Burnese with the lab or did Lily have to go find her when she headed out the second time?
Lily is the epitome of a tiny, lovable, 24/7 house dog. But today, Lily is a Leader and a Hero. Lily could have continued to sit on the front porch and never left the yard, but Lily knew that two of her family members were gone and she decided to go get them. Lily was obviously able to communicate to the Lab and Burnese that they needed to come home. They listened to her and she brought them home.
Lily will always be tiny and frail compared to the big Burnese and the soon-t0-be big black lab. But today, she was a tiny dog with a huge amount of courage and love for her two best friends.
They listened to her. Lily will be looked at differently from this day forward.

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