Life with Lilly

By Anne M. Pelleriti

Sometimes events and people change your life. Our lives were changed when we brought Lilly into ours. At 130 pounds she wasnt big for a Great Dane but her impact was. This book is our story of how our lives were affected, sometimes for better, sometimes not. It was always challenging, rewarding and interesting. They say life is the journey, Lilly made our journey enlightening, frustrating, fun and challenging. This book is a window into the life of our ride with Lilly, full of bumps, turns and great love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Dec 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452501017

Anne M. Pelleriti

Anne's volunteer work with a wildlife rehabilitation center and her own dogs battle with cancer lead her to pursue a career as a Veterinary Technician. Since 1995 she has been a practicing RVT with a small animal practice. She is also an accomplished artist and a Great Dane fan.

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

Summer

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Fall

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Epilogue

1

2

Foreword

Dogs have always been an important part of my life. Some of them have had a profound influence. Prima, a stray we took in several years ago, developed lymphoma at four years of age. This propelled me to go back to college and get a degree as a registered veterinary technician. Lilly changed my life by helping put my degree to good use and teaching me about myself.

Lilly was born deaf, an inherited trait. But this wasn’t a problem for her; it was a challenge for me. We struggled at first, neither one of us listening to the other. She got my attention when she weighed nearly as much as I did, especially when her playing knocked me into a glass door, breaking my glasses and cutting my face. It was clear we needed a trainer. We had been training with hand signals from the beginning, mostly me shaking my finger no at her and her turning her head so she didn’t see me.

The trainer helped us by training us both with more hand signals and a slip lead for Lilly. Slowly we began to work in tandem on our daily—sometimes twice daily—walks through the neighborhood.

As was the case with Prima and her daily chemotherapy meds and weekly vet visits, Lilly and I spent a lot of time working together, but our time was focused on our behavior. I was never sure who was training whom. She became a huge presence, not just because of her size but also because of her personality. She loved constant attention, and since she couldn’t hear me, I would need to touch her to get her attention. There was no yelling from the couch to Stop it! I had to get up, walk across the room, tap her, and shake my finger at her—which, because she was interested in everything around her, became a very common occurrence.

Her curiosity was only equaled by her capacity to love. She loved hugs and kisses, considered herself a lap dog, and expected to go wherever I went. And she usually did. It’s not easy stopping a 130-pound stubborn galoot.

Every day seemed to bring her a new curiosity: cats, squirrels, bugs, patterns on the linoleum floor, and leaves. Oh, leaves! Fall was a great season for her, chasing leaves and crushing them with a giant foot, only to be lured by another magical leaf sailing by her. God forbid you weren’t paying attention on a walk. I swear I still have one arm longer than the other!

This book is a small window into our life with Lilly. It started as a way for me to deal with her inevitable aging and its challenges with a dog of her size. But as my writing progressed, I realized through my work as a registered veterinary technician that I wasn’t the only one struggling with these issues. I decided that my concerns, struggles, and humor may help someone else realize they are not alone with the love and loss of someone so special in their life.

Summer

1

There’s nothing like hot, hideous dog breath blasting into your face to get your attention. Of course, that’s what she’s banking on. She lives for attention. Good, bad, it doesn’t matter to Lilly. She is the consummate attention addict and always has been. I’m sure I played a big role in ensuring that, but most of it is her.

She must be exhausted. It’s only 10:00 am, and the temperature is already in the eighties, with the humidity cranking along with it. The effort it now takes for her to move is monumental—at least that’s how it looks. She’s nearly eleven years old, which for a Great Dane is phenomenal. She has her health issues. She has lost twenty-five pounds in the past couple of years, which, much to my dismay, I can’t find a reason for or a way to stop. She has arthritis in her spine, and she’s probably a wobbler too. A wobbler is a congenital problem in several dog breeds with the vertebrae in the neck, causing nerve damage to the spine. They walk like they’re drunk because even though the problem is in the neck, it affects the nerves to the hips and legs. She’s always been a rear toe dragger, but now more and more she stands on the knuckles of her rear feet. That’s actually better than the other way she stands, with a leg pulled all the way behind her, nearly bending backwards. She’s completely oblivious to it; she stands there staring at you, patiently waiting for you to give her attention. She gets it too, because it is nauseating to see her leg that way and I have to upright it. Of course the attention and touching make her happy—a twofer.

We have the quality of life conversation more often now, but she still doesn’t seem to have a bad quality of life. She sleeps on the couch and the bed and gets canned food twice daily, dry food at her whim, and all the biscuits she wants. I should live so well! Think of it, eating all the food that I want and still losing weight. If I could figure out her secret, I could make fortune!

She has been mostly a good dog, although she and I have had our moments. We adopted her at about eight weeks of age. I’m a registered veterinary technician and work at a small animal clinic across town and one of the guys I worked with had purchased a Great Dane puppy from a local breeder. Several weeks later the breeder called him to say she had a pure white female that needed a home. If he didn’t take her, she was going to euthanize her because she was also deaf. Right, he took the dog.