Happy Birthday Lily!

Hi everyone! It's me, Lily, and it is my turn to write in the bloggy! Last time, you got to read about my sister Trixie's rescue story. My story is a little different, but Mama still calls it a rescue story.

Mama used to live with some people who had a female dog that they did not want to get spayed. Then they got their son a male dog because he wanted a chihuahua. They did not want to neuter the male dog. And you can probably guess, the female dog got pregnant, and an accidental litter was born!

Mama was actually there at my birth. It was very early in the morning, the day after Mother's Day. My mother dog gave birth to nine puppies. Mama was there, with her roommate's mother and younger sisters, to comfort my mother dog and to help take care of my brothers and sisters and me. She put some of us in her hoodie pocket to keep us warm while the others were still being born!

When we were born we were all wet and slimy and squeaking. But by later in the morning, we were looking a little bit cuter. We were so tiny, we could fit in the palm of a person's hand! Here is me, a few hours old.

Time went on. We puppies got bigger. Soon we were old enough to stop drinking our mother's milk, and start eating regular dog food! The humans would water down puppy food with warm water, mash it up really good with a fork, and serve it to us on a plate. I'm the one someone was holding... I kept losing interest and wandering off, but I needed to eat before my brothers and sisters hogged it all!

When we were eating on our own, we were old enough to move to new homes. Mama's roommates had found homes for most of us puppies. The roommates had promised their children that they could keep one of the puppies. (They had ended up "getting rid of" the male dog who was our father, but they still had my mother dog.) The kids wanted to keep me. Mama was happy, because secretly, she loved me the most! A big reason for it was, because of my pink nose and the color of my fur, I reminded her of Trixie. 

A mother dog will often push her puppies over on their backs, to teach them to roll over and submit if they are confronted by an older or more dominant dog. My mother dog taught all of my brothers and sisters to roll over on their backs. But my (human) Mama said she saw my mother dog trying to push me over, and I just would not fall down! My mother dog scooted me all the way across the room and I stood my ground, with an irritated look on my face. Mama said she thought I had a lot of personality and spirit!

In the beginning, I didn't really think about my situation much. I mostly slept a lot. I would play for short amounts of time, and then fall asleep! 

But after a while, I started to have problems in my house. For one thing, it was a very busy household. There were four children living in the house, and a parade of teenagers and kids always in and out. Everyone in the household was loud and boisterous. And the parents believed that the children should be allowed to do whatever they wanted to animals, and that pets just had to learn to deal with it. 

I had a lot of trouble getting potty trained. I would leave little puddles of pee and piles of poop all around the house, even though the humans regularly took me out in the backyard. I would go to the bathroom outside, but I would save a little something to surprise everyone with later. I also had a tendency to pee on the floor whenever the oldest son talked to me! 

As I got older, I also started to bark a lot. The adult humans in the household would get very angry at me. They wanted me to be kept in my cage all day long, and only taken out to go outside to use the bathroom or to eat! My mama hated that. But the roommates always reminded her that I wasn't her dog. 

Even though I wasn't Mama's dog, she often took care of me. I started sleeping in her bed every night... except for when her roommates insisted that I sleep in my cage. Mama also liked to take me places with her, when the roommates would allow it. 

The tiniest collar Mama could find in the store was too big for me!

Sometimes Mama would take me on overnight visits to her parents' house. I got to know Trixie. Trixie was a gentle big dog, and we played together all the time! When we first met, Mama had brought me to the house riding in a carrier. When she set down my carrier and opened the door, I peeked out at Trixie. Then I ran and hid behind a chair and peeked out at her again... and then raced back into my carrier and peeked out some more! This became a fun game for both of us! 

Meanwhile at my house, things were getting worse. I still wasn't housetrained. I still barked a lot. And Mama's roommates were talking about getting rid of me. They even put an ad on Facebook asking who wanted me! Mama would hold me in her arms and cry, praying that she could find a way to keep me. Mama couldn't afford to move out and get a place of her own. She tried finding someone she knew to take me, like her friend or one of her aunts, so she could at least make sure I was in a safe home, and so she could see me still. 

One day while I was still a puppy, I was in my cage, chewing on a bone. Mama's roommate's youngest child, who was a toddler, crawled into the cage and tried to take my bone away. I nipped at her hand, and she started to cry. I didn't mean to hurt her... I just didn't want someone to take my bone away! But Mama's roommates both grabbed me out of my cage and started hitting me over and over again. 

Another day, when the roommates came home in the middle of the night, I started barking. One of the roommates started kicking my cage and yelling at me.

The roommates were going to take me to the pound. In the mean time, they went out and got another puppy... a boy dog. So then there were three of us dogs in the house, and a whole bunch of kids, and it was crazy a lot of the time!

Just as the roommates were a day away from dropping me off at the pound, they made Mama an offer she couldn't refuse. They said I could be her puppy! 

Mama and I still lived at the house for a while, with me now being Mama's responsibility. Mama was very happy about that. But we were both getting more unhappy about where we lived. So Mama moved to the only place where she knew she could stay for free, for a while, while she finished school... her parents' house! And that is how Trixie officially became my sister!

Within a few weeks of living at my new home, I was completely housetrained. I still bark a lot, but I am getting better at stopping barking when I am asked to. I am very close to my Mama, and am almost always in the same room as she is, when she is home. Mama takes me for walks on my leash, but she says technically she could probably leave the leash at home, because I always walk very nicely beside her, and I always come when she calls me, and I pretty much do anything she asked me to do. People compliment Mama on how well-trained I am... but the funny thing is, Mama never actually trained me to do any of these things, except for being housetrained. I just do it naturally, because I want to be near my Mama! 

Yesterday I turned five years old. Mama says she can't believe I'm five! She says my becoming her dog was one of the best things that ever happened to her. And we will never be separated again!

I hope you like my "rescue" story! It is more of a "gotcha" story maybe. But either way, I am happy that Mama and Trixie and I are a family. 

By the way, Mama's book, The Best Dog In The World, has a Facebook page, and Trixie and I are the spokesdogs! We just made it, and we don't have many "likes" yet, so we'd be happy if you'd check us out! 
The Best Dog In The World

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