Lily

Entrant's First Name
Cassie

Your Pet's Rescue Story
Lily had a rough start to life, but you’d never know it from her super happy life now! Born in Gainesville, Florida, her and her brother were saved by local animal control officers when they were just puppies, due to reports of cruelty. Luckily she was taken to the shelter medicine department at University of Florida’s vet school. She had multiple surgeries on her broken rear legs and needed to have her eye removed due to trauma. Even with bandages and stitches she always greeted people with tail wags and licks.
I was a third year student at the vet school when I met lily through my classmate who was fostering her. I had just lost my best friend, my Labrador Cleo, and wasn’t ready for another dog. I agreed to help foster lily for awhile, but JUST foster. Well, as much as I didn’t want a “replacement” dog, I couldn’t help let lily into my heart. In helping this super sweet-natured but injured puppy, I was being healed myself by caring for her. We worked together through some of her issues to make her a more confident and calm girl. She was rightfully very wary of certain new people that we think reminded her of her past, and slippery floors terrified her due to her broken legs. Over time she learned to trust us more and more and we learned how to help her.
Now, 13 years later, she is no stranger to farmers markets and restaurants and gets to know new people with more trust than ever. Those slippery floors still aren’t her favorite but now mom and papa know to bring yoga mats around for her. She loves lizard and squirrel chasing, peanut butter, digging in sand, her grandparents, new stuffed animal toys (which she ALWAYS promptly removes the right eye from- so weird!) and lots of couch naps.
I can’t imagine my life without this girl in it. She has been with me through thick and thin, and I know if it wasn’t for her I would be a lesser person. People who meet her at first always ask what happened to her eye, but it’s funny, those who know her barely even remember that it’s not there. She is the MOST loved dog in the world and she makes us smile everyday. There’s no dog on the planet like my Lily!