Mr. R's Letter

hi y'all. still not quite on our feet here. i know you animal lovers understand. i also want to thank everyone for all of the kind words about lily. it has really meant so much to us. my husband wrote a beautiful letter to the breeder who we got lily from and i thought i would share it. here's what he said...


This is Meredith and ____ R and we bought a dog from you in 2006 whom we called Lily. She was all liver with the sweetest face. It is with very heavy hearts that we are writing to tell you that our sweet little Lily girl passed away early Wednesday morning, about a month before her eighth birthday.

She woke us around 3AM on Wednesday and was vomiting blood. We immediately rushed her to the MA Vet Referral Hospital where they were able to stabilize her for a short time but they were ultimately unable to save her. A postmortem autopsy showed that Lily had developed a large ulcer in her stomach which ate away at her stomach wall and into an artery, causing her stomach to fill with blood. It is so shocking and devastating to us as she didn't exhibit any symptoms whatsoever.

Lily was the absolute best dog we could have imagined. From the moment we met her at Logan airport after her trip up from Tampa to this past Memorial Day weekend, she was full of life and unbelievably special to us and our two year old twin boys. Lily loved going for long runs in meadows and in the woods and chasing her ball or sticks in our yard. She would point chipmunks (and occasionally mailboxes) in our neighborhood and nothing ever got past her watchful eye. We recently bought a new outdoor umbrella and when Lily saw it outside the next morning, she barked and let us know that she noticed the change. She had a million and one funny quirks and was always making us laugh.

She was incredibly patient with her baby brothers, whom she grew to love. She was not sold on them initially as they took our focus off of her, but let them climb on her bed with her and lead her around by her collar – as long as it happened to be in the direction that she wanted to go. As with most dogs, she was always happy to see us when we returned home and wouldn’t give up until she received her pat and ear scratch. She was definitely an independent dog and while she liked getting her ear rubbed and back scratched, she didn’t always need to be right next to people. She was affectionate in her own way, which we loved.

We miss Lily so incredibly much and tears are streaming down our faces as we write to you. She will always hold a very special place in our hearts and minds. She was our first baby as a couple and nothing will ever be able to replace that. We hope that we provided her with a good home and plenty of love and affection and really hope that she knew how much she meant to us. Our pain is increased by the shock of her sudden sickness at a relatively young age. We loved Lily so wholly and unconditionally and are just devastated by her passing. There is a void in our hearts and our household that only Lily can fill. Besides our family, there isn’t anything that we wouldn’t give up to be able to spend another day with our little Lily girl.

We are a dog family and as we begin to pick up the pieces, we do know that we eventually want to have another dog. Given Lily’s demeanor, temperament, athleticism and beauty, we cannot think of any place to start our search for a new dog but with you. Obviously, we do not know your plans for new litters or when we will emotionally be ready for a new dog. We just felt that we should notify you of Lily’s untimely passing and tell you a tiny bit about what made her such a wonderful dog and family member to us.

maybe he should be the blog writer? ;) i promise some normal posts this week too which i think will be a good distraction. oh and something very weird - the woodpecker has not been back to our house since the morning lily passed. (knock on wood? ugh bad joke)