Lily's World

Lily’s World

         The world can be a scary and adventuresome place to be in.  My name is Lily and this is how I see the world.  Some of the stories you will read here are true, most are conjecture on my beloved owner’s part and lots of it are just plain made up.

         I have no true concept of time but for what is in front of my face.  The humans I live with now - My humans (which for the sake of convenience I will call them Ma and Pa) think I am nine months old perhaps born around February, 2012.

         I have little memory of my younger days.  At some point somebody taught me to love the dog crate.  Ma is so happy when I go into the dog crate voluntarily. Of course she makes it interesting to go into the dog crate because she always puts little chicken cookies in it for me to eat after she latches the door.  I do go into it voluntarily sometimes without her putting treats in it. I like to go into it has a really soft cushy pillow and no one will bother me while I chew on my chew stick. Both Ma and Pa have made it as comfortable a nest as dog could wish for.  Hiding in the crate is one of my quirky things I like to do.  When Ma is cooking she does not want me under her feet or around the hot thing she is standing in front of.  She makes such wonderful smells. I cannot help but get closer.  She scolds me. It hurts my feelings and I want to go hide. My crate is nearby and I retreat into.  I know she does not scold me to make me sad. She is trying to keep me safe. She tells me the oven is hot when she is cooking and tells me to stay away.

         I am getting ahead of myself.  I am a Rat Terrier mix.  The people at the animal shelter told Ma that is what they believed my breed is.  I have seen the book Ma reads about Rat Terriers.  I do look like one. However, my spine is a little longer and my legs a little shorter than some of the rat terriers in the pictures.  Ma believes one of my parents was a pure bred rat terrier and the other parent was a little short dachshund.  I am10 inches tall paw to shoulder. The length of my back from neck to the base of my lovely long tail is 16 inches.  I have a white belly and white legs. My back, shoulders and head are black. It is as though God gave me a white body and then threw a black cape over my head.  I have black, white and tan markings on my face.  The black covers my head and eyes which make me look like I am wearing a burglar’s mask.  Ma tells me I am pretty with my little button brown eyes. My tail is long and black half way to the tip, the rest of the tail is white.  When I see Ma and Pa return home from wherever they have been, I am so happy I wag my tail so hard it makes my whole body waggle.

         As I said earlier I do not remember much of my early life. Somehow I got separated from the first family.  I wandered the streets trying to find my way home but curious scents in the grass and on the air kept pulling me further and further away.  I soon discovered the world outside my first home could be a very scary place with big metal boxes with spinning wheels roaring down the streets.  I soon lost my trust of anyone walking up right on two legs.  I also lost my trust of any animal larger than me.  Each day was a struggle to find something, anything, to eat.  I remember sniffing about a large metal box that sat flat on the ground.  It had lids on the top.  One was close and the other was open.  Flies were flitting about the opening. Oh the odors coming from that box.  I wanted to roll in the smell odor so badly.  My tummy growled at me to the point of pain.  There had to be something in that big metal box to eat.

         A man came out of the building no to far away from the smelly box.  He carried a large black bag with a knot tied at the end of it.  He threw the bag into the metal box and pulled the lid down to close it. He saw me run in the bushes. The man went back inside the building and came out a few moments later with sweet smelling meat in his hands.  He called to me.  I did not trust him but I was so hungry.  The sweet meat smelled so good.  He put a piece on the ground and backed up.  I sniffed the air and looked around to see if any other animals were nearby.  I had often missed getting something to eat because other bigger animals would run in and snatch it up before I could get to it.  My tummy growled again.  I sniffed the air once more and slowly walked to the tasty bit he put on the ground.  I never took my eyes off the man.  I grabbed the meat and quickly retreated to my hiding place.

         The man came closer to my hiding place and put another piece of meat on the ground. He continued to talk to me in a soft low voice.  He left a third piece of meat on the ground a little closer to him than the second piece.  I slowly came out of hiding and grabbed the second piece of meat, eating where I was.  I could smell the third offering and looked at the man.  He continued to talk to me in his low calm voice.  I slowly came forward, he did not move.  I ate the third piece of meat.  He held his hand out and grasped in it was a fourth piece of meat.  He let me nibble on the meat but without giving me the whole piece.  He picked me up and held me while I ate that last piece of meat.  He carried me to his truck.  There was a dog crate in the back.  He put me in the crate with a fresh towel. He latched the crate door.

         Oh no! Now what was going to happen to me.  The man got into the cab of the truck and made it growl to life.  He drove what seemed to be a long time, but what do I know about time.  He parked the truck in the shade next to a large building.  I can hear dogs barking within.  I begin to shake.  I am so afraid.  The sun was high in the sky and it was very hot outside.  A warm breeze carries the scent of cleaning fluids, dogs, cats and poop.  I squish myself into the back of the cage to make myself into a very small little ball.  The man opens the door of the crate and quickly slips the end of a looped rope over my head.  “Do not be scared sweet girl. This is a good place to be.  You will get a check up, be fed good food twice a day.  There will be a warm bed to sleep in night no worries about other dogs or vermin trying to hurt you.” His voice soothed me.

         He pulled me from the back of the crate.  Holding me securely he carried me into this new place that smelled of many creatures.  It was a noisy place.  Dogs were sitting with their humans or sniffing around them.  The man opened another door to go into a room called In-take.

         A young woman put another cage up on the counter for him to put me in. He slipped the rope off my neck and pushed me into the cage latching the door behind me.  He answered her questions about what type of dog he thought I might me, where he found me. She noted all this information on paper on the clipboard she was holding.  The man smiled at me and left.  The young woman carried the cage into another quieter room and left it on a large metal table. 

         This new room did not have any other animal odors in it.  The room was quiet.  I could no longer hear the other dogs barking.  I curled up tightly, tucking my head under my rear leg and went to sleep. I do not know how long I slept, but I felt a little more rested.

         An older woman with a kind face and softness about her came into the room quietly.  She put papers on counter.  Quietly she opened cabinet doors and drawers assembling items I had never seen before.  The door opened again and a tall man came in to the room.  He bent over to pick something up from the floor and he peered into the cage I was in.  He softly spoke to me telling me not to fret.  He opened the cage door and slowly drew me out.  Holding me securely he put a thin strip of material around my neck.  I later learned that was a plastic collar and it had my case number on it as well as a temporary “name” for me.  I do not recall having a name before except for ‘puppy’.  The older woman picked up a white and silver stick and before I could resist, she poked it my bottom.  The man held me firmly.  The woman took it out again and read aloud “102 degrees”. Next she took a light and shined it in my face, eyes, down my throat and in my ears. She put funny looking scoop things in her ears and the other end had a large disc which she put on my chest and belly. “Lungs sound clear and heart is regular”.  She took some damp wipes out of a box on the counter and proceeded to wipe me down with them.  They smelled like almonds. 

         The man then wrestled me into a woven cloth harness and attached a leash to it.  He put me on the floor.  I tried to wiggle out of it but it was tight. The woman kneeled down in front of me but she was across the room.  She called to me and held something out in her hand.  I sniffed the air and could smell liver and chicken. Oh! She had something tasty in her hand.  I started I move but fear took over.  That other man who brought me here did the same thing.  Teased me closer with food and then catch me.  I balked and tried to back up but the tall man was behind me.  The woman kept gently and happily calling me to come closer holding out the treat before her.  I could no longer resist and came forward.  She moved the treat around her so I would have to walk farther and turn.  She was looking closely at me.  “No signs of lameness.”  She gave me the treat and stood up.  The man called me back to him and he held out a treat too.  I did not take his treat.  I do not trust men so much. The woman finished making her notes and nodded to the man to take me to the “kennel”.  He led me down a hall toward a wide door.  I could hear the dogs barking. 

         I tried to resist.  I did not want to go in to the room where so many dogs were barking at the same time. It was an assault on my ears.  I tried again to pull back.  The man bent over and whisked me into his arms and with one hand opened the door that led to barking dogs. He walked down a row of kennels.  Each one contained a small dog similar in size to me.  Each one was barking.  He came to an empty kennel. It contained a little elevated bedding, like hammock, a food and water area, a squeaky toy and rope pull toy.  The man opened the kennel gate and put me inside shutting the gate behind me. I am so confused and scared.  I sniff the bed and the toys.  There is water in the bowl and I drink my fill.  I am not so sure about the hammock thing, I opt to sleep on the cold concrete floor.

         Time passes slowly for me.  A human comes twice a day to feed me and to take me out for walk in the sun.  The routine is the same each day. I hear the other dogs bark in a cacophony.  To the human ears it is just barking.  To me, it is many voices all crying to get out.  When the human helpers leave the dogs that are barking the most and the loudest quiet down and tell their stories of how they ran away from mean humans or were simply taken for a car ride and left on the side of the road.  So sad.  A few of the real old timers that say they have been in this place for many months.  They explain to me it is an animal shelter, a no kill shelter.  For many of them that are not young and cute like me, this is the last place they will live until it is time to cross the Rainbow Bridge.  They tell me I was lucky to be picked up by a kind stranger and brought to this place.  I ask what the other place is they tell about it in low whispers and grumbles.  They tell me it is the dog pound; a place similar to this one but, not as nice.  If your former family does not come to claim you when lost, you are kept there for two weeks, if you are not adopted by a new family very soon then they take you for that last walk to the room with a heavy door.  I cringe when they tell me what happens in the room with the heavy door.

         I look around at the kennel I am in.  It is clean, there is water in my bowl and somebody brings crunchy kibble each day for the other bowl.  I give thanks to the Creator of all animals for putting angels on earth.  I hope my family comes to pick me up soon.  This place as nice as it is, is not my home. I want my crate.

         Days go by and my family has not come to claim me.  I do not understand why.  Was I a bad puppy? Did I not learn my obedience lessons well enough? Okay, maybe that is it. I did not obey the rules. I did slip out when somebody did not latch the door to the house tight enough. 

         I had never been outside.  There were so many smells and sights to take in.  First I catch the scent of the cat that lives next door.  I had seen it from the window many times. It was light colored.  It would walk by the front window flipping its tail about, back up to one of the short bushes along the front walk way and spray its stinky odor on the leaves and then turn to look at me watching from the window and stink its little pink tongue out at me.  Oh how I wanted to chase that darn cat.

         I followed the scent left behind by that cat.  May be I could find it and make it run.  I love to run after things.  The cat’s stench was replaced by the smell of lizards.  The lizards would lay on the warm side walk soaking up the morning sun.  The side walk was full of the lizard smells and I kept following it.

         I do not know how far I had walked or trotted with my nose to the sidewalk. I passed a fenced yard and stopped at the corner of the yard to smell the weeds growing there.  I was too engrossed in the lizard and dog smells that I did not look up until it was almost on top of me.  A very large angry dog came running to the corner of that yard.  It was barking and growling so loud. “Get away! Get away! I own this yard! I own those weeds! Get away! Get away before I eat you in one big chomp!”  That dog scared me so much I jumped back not looking to where I was I was jumping and jumped into the street.  A truck was speeding by and began to blow its loud horn at me.  I turned and ran up the side walk to where I do not know.  I had to get away from the big dog that was threatening to eat me and away from the loud truck.

         As I ran I was going farther and farther away from home.  I had never been outside before and did not know which way was back home.  I did not have the good sense to be more wary of where I was and back track my own steps and smells. The sun was starting to go down and I tried to find the familiar scent of home, but I could not catch it on the breeze.  I heard dogs barking, telling each other to be on the lookout for me.  I wore no collar of ownership. I was young and did not know the rules. I would be an easy mark.

         The sun had dipped down so far I could not see it shining brightly in the sky any more.    Where was my family? How I wanted something to eat and to curl up in my crate. I picked up the scent of cooked hamburger and fries.  I have never had that before, but it smelled good and I was so hungry.  I followed the scent to an alley way that was adjacent to a building with a garbage can.  Someone had not finished their meal and did not try to shove it in to the all ready full garbage can.  Inside the bag were the remnants of a burger and fries. The food was cold but I did not care. I did not care that it might give me a tummy ache.  The food was very salty and made me thirsty.  My tummy was no longer growling but now I was really thirsty.  I wandered down the sidewalk of the building looking for water, for a puddle, anything.  I came across a cup that someone left next to the door of a store.  It contained black liquid.  It had a strong smell to it.  I sniffed at it some more and gingerly dipped my tongue in it.  It was cold and wet.  I began lapping it up.  It did wash that salty taste the fried potatoes had left in my mouth, but now my tongue had yucky black coffee flavor on it.  I continued to walk until the sidewalk ended and I spied a stairway going up the side of the building.

         They were not like the stairs in my family’s home; solid, covered with carpeting.  No, these stairs were metal and you could see through them.  At the top of the stairs was a metal plat form.  Someone had just put a bowl of something out for a cat.  I know it was for a cat because the human was calling “here kitty, kitty, kitty! Here kitty, kitty, kitty!

         I started climbing the stairs and was almost to the top when a white blur ran past me up to the top of the stairs.  It sniffed at the bowls and began to eat and drink.  It was a cat.  I could beat a cat.  I wanted what it had.  I wanted more food for my tummy so it would not grumble again.  I was almost to the plat form when the cat looked up from the food dish.  It licked its paws and rubbed its face. When it saw me I was just a step away from the plat form.  It jumped to its feet, hissing and growing in size.  I always thought I could take on a cat. But this cat grew and grew until he was twice as big as me.  He growled and yowled at me to stay away. It was his food his human had put out for him and he was not going to share it with me.  I stepped up to the platform with the intent to muscle the cat out of the way.  The cat bowed up its fur standing on end. As I reached toward the bowl the cat whacked me on the head so hard my face hit the bowl splattering its contents everywhere.  I barely got my tongue wet.  I looked at the bowls with a deepening sadness.  The cat had eaten all the kibble and the water or milk bowl was turned upside down.  To add more insult to my already depressed demeanor, the cat jumped on my back and started swatting me with his claws out.  I half ran half tumbled down the stairs to the ground below.

         I looked back up at the cat.  It continued to howl and hiss at me jumping down two steps at a time.  It meant to come after me!  Oh the shame to be beat up by a cat!  I tucked my tail between my legs and scurried away to the next building across the street. 

         I took in a deep breathe of the evening air.  More scents were coming out that I did not smell earlier in the day.  I found a sheltered spot next to a low brick wall with short bushes in front of it.  There were dry leaves on the ground and I raked some up into a pile to lay on.  I watched the cars zoom by on the street until  falling asleep.

         The night was warm and I slept through until early morning.  I awoke to a pair of beady eyes staring at me.  Those eyes belonged to a rather large black rat.  I slowly got up stretching each leg and never taking my eyes of the rat. Being a rat terrier, it would not be hard to run it down.  I gave it a head start.  The chase was on! It ran down the length of the brick wall and around the corner.  I was right behind it. I saw it make a dash for the drainage pipe that ran underneath the brick wall.  I leaped at it, my clawed paws coming down on its back before it could escape into the drainage pipe.  I grabbed its neck and gave it a hard shake. I trotted back to my sleeping place with the rat in my mouth and looked around.  No other animals were around.  I dug a hole where I had been sleeping.  I dropped the rat in to the whole and pushed the dirt over it.  Running that rat down just made me hungrier.  I followed the brick wall and sniffed the air again.   

         I continued to walk along the wall until it ended at a large drive way.  In the yard were large oak trees and SQUIRRELS!  I stealthily stalked up the drive way hiding behind low growing shrubbery. I may have been a cat in a previous life. A big fat squirrel was hanging on a bird feeder at the edge of the drive about 10 feet from the oak tree.  It was busily shoving sun flower seeds in to its cheeks. I gathered my strength and leaped with my mouth wide open ready to snatch the squirrel by the neck.  I  bit down on nothing but air!  The oversized vermin had ran to safety as I leaped.  It was half way up the tree when it stopped, turned to look at me and shake its fluffy tail.

         “Ha! I am too quick for the likes of you!” the squirrel chattered back at me. I ran to the tree barking at it.  The squirrel was too high up for me to reach it, but maybe I could bark insults at it so it would come back down to the ground. I heard a door open and felt something sting my back leg. I jumped around to see what tried to bite me when I heard something whiz past my head.  I looked at the back door of the house.  A man was standing there is with a little stick in his hand raised to his face. “Go on! Git outta here you noisy mongrel.  Leave my squirrels alone!” the man yelled at me. 

         The sun was getting higher in the sky and the coolness of the morning air was burning off and mugginess had taken its place.    Most of the early morning cricket and bird sounds have stopped.  It is too hot even for them to make much noise.  I slow crept out of my hiding spot sniffing the air for any scent of the man with the boom stick being close by or outside at all.  I stretched my short legs out and stretched my back. It was time to move on. I did not want to follow the fence any more.  I did not want to chance the man seeing me again and taking a shot at me with his boom stick.  He can keep his squirrels.

         This brings me back to my present state of affairs.  Now I am in a warm dry kennel with the howling and barking of other dogs.  My family never came to get me from this place.  It is early on the morning of my 13th day of my captivity.  Shelter workers did see to my basic needs and some of the care takers did try to hold me and reassure me but I can hear it in their voices.  This was not home. They cannot love me. My stay with them is temporary at best and it is hoped for.  But I digress.  On the morning of the 13th day of my sheltering one of the attendants takes me out for a pee/poop break.  I am hungry and thirsty but when we come back inside she does not take me to my kennel for breakfast.  Instead she picks me up and takes me to one of the examination rooms.  There the vet lady that took my temperature several days ago is there.  She again takes my temperature, looks at my eyes, ears and mouth and makes notes in her paper folder.  One of the assistants begins to clean me up getting that gamey smell off me, thoroughly washes my legs and belly.  She shaves my belly and one of my legs.  The vet lady sticks a sharp needle into my leg and draws back some blood while the assistant is holding me down.  I am scared. The vet lady talks gently to me while inserting something into the plastic tube attached to the needle.  I get very sleepy. My legs are growing limp.  I do not remember anything.  I wake up in a small cage with a warm towel wrapped around my middle.  I try to stand up but my legs are very shake and oh how my belly hurts!  What did they do to me?  I cannot look at or even lick my belly, but it hurts!  I stop trying to get up and put my head back down on the soft towels they have lined the cage with. I go back to sleep.

         The next time I wake up I am back in my kennel.  There is a little kibble in my food bowl and water in the other bowl.  I am able to stand up now and walk a little, but it still hurts.  I can look at my belly now there is a blue line on my belly and little strings sticking out.  One of the helpers sees that I am awake and puts a little cone on my head to keep me from licking or chewing my stitches.  I hear the dogs barking.

         “Aye ye gunna be a girly for the rest ye days lassie” said the Scottish terrier from the other side of the block wall.

         “Yep, no pups in your future” added another terrier in the kennel next to mine.

         So this is why I hurt.  The vet lady took my female parts out. I will never know what it is like to have puppies.

         “Aye, tis a good thin lil’ miss. Most humans dunna want a female that gets filled with bairns at the drop of a hat.” Said the Scottish terrier.

         “They will take that cone off your head, take a picture of you and post it on the shelter’s website to advertise that you are available for adoption. Young pups like you get snatched up quickly, you’ll see.” Explained the terrier. 

         At that time I didn’t realize my future Ma was already looking for me. 

         She and Pa had raised, loved and buried many dogs in their life together. Duchess was the last one. Ma called her the giant Chihuahua.  Ma showed me her picture on the book case.  The picture was on top of a carved box.  Ma said Duchess was in the box.  That was hard for me to understand.  Ma hugged me and said “You are our furry angel come to heal the hole in our grieving hearts.”

         I am in my Forever Home now.

(approx. 4,975 words.)