The Sweetest Puppy There Ever Was

Princess Lillian was born on February 26th, 1996. She was an early birthday present. I had been begging my parents for a dog for years, and one of my mom’s coworkers knew a breeder who had Labs. My dad made the mistake of telling me. I had a dream weeks before about a little black dog, no bigger than the palm of my hand. I knew we were destined to be together. She was the last of her brothers and sisters to be adopted. The first time I saw her she ran up to me and started licking my face. We took her home in a little cardboard box, in the backseat, between me and Grammy.

Over the next few years she chewed the cabinets, the rocking chair, tiles in the bathroom, siding off the side of the house and us. She got out of the backyard a couple of times. Grammy and the mail lady chased her down the street once. One day she got out in the Poconos and went chasing after deer. Of course she came back, she hadn’t had her breakfast yet and she was hungry. If there’s one thing our family has in common, we do love our food. Every morning she would wake up, barking, demanding to be fed. I love food, but boy, I wish breakfast made me that happy.

Princess collapsed on Wednesday, days after her 14th birthday. My parents brought her to the hospital. She was anemic. We found out yesterday that she had lymphoma. We went to see her. She wagged her tail a little when she saw us and when we made a joke about Buffy, but she was really weak. She kept trying to get up, but her body wouldn’t let her. She looked completely miserable. We decided to give it another night, see if the drugs would kick in or another blood transfusion would help. She had the transfusion, but she never perked up.

They took us into this room with tissues, bottles of water, comfy chairs and seeds “to remember your pet.” They wheeled her in. She looked at us. We showed her Dino and she sniffed him a little. She wasn’t interested in the Begin’ Strip. We told her what a good puppy she was. I gave her hugs for all the people on facebook that said to give her a hug. I told her how much everyone loves her. Her tail didn’t wag, her feet didn’t move. She wasn’t trying to get up anymore. She lifted her said up a little, she looked at us. I gave her one last big hug and kissed her little nose. The doctor gave her the drugs. I stroked her head until I couldn’t feel her anymore.

I’m glad she was better the last couple of months after the surgery. I just wish she had more time like that. They knew she had a swollen lymph node when they did the surgery, but they didn’t think it was because of cancer or they would have done a biopsy. She wasn’t sick at all until Wednesday. Just last weekend she was playing with me. I threw her toy and she ran after it. Rachie came over and she was jumping on her. If anything, she was more hyper than usual. It was so sad to see her so weak.

I’m glad we got to have 14 years with her. She was really a special puppy. It’s good that she wasn’t suffering long and that we all got to say goodbye.

We love you Princess.