When Life Turns Out Right

When I woke up this morning I never imagined the day turning out the way it did.

At 7:00am I made my way to the kitchen to find that 'She', the stray Springer Spaniel I had taken in had made a huge pee mess on the floor.  No worries, cleaned it up, cleaned her up, threw her new blankie in the wash and took her out for a walk.  Well not a real walk because she is old and doesn't walk well.  


As I am getting breakfast for her and my dad, my mind wandered to worrying about what is in store for this sweet lost girl with no name.  Springer Spaniel Rescue would be picking her up from me tomorrow taking her farther and farther away from whatever life she had known before becoming a stray.  Was she scared, sad and wanting her family? 

What I didn't mention in my original post about her was that there was a darn good chance that Springer Rescue would likely have to make the decision to put her to sleep.  It's hard enough to find fosters and adopters for young, healthy dogs which is far from what 'she' is.  The longer she is with me the more I realize just how advanced in age she is.  The incontinence, the circling which often indicates senior dementia. Life was not looking so good.


On the bright side of the morning, Mr. Fix-it's granddaughter Lacie, came to spend the day with me and was excited to find a dog at gramma K's house.  

I found it interesting that Lacie kept calling her 'Alfie'.  Lacie lives with Alfie who is my last surviving English Cocker.  She obviously recognized the similarity of the spaniel breeds!  Pretty smart for a less than two year old!

And then it happened.   My cell phone rang and on the other end was my friend Susan who had been the one to pick the dog up on the south side of town and transport her to me.  "I found her owner", Susan said!!    


It was almost surreal, it almost never happens!  But it was true and instead of 'she', her name is Lily and Lily is almost 18 years old!!!!  Unbelievable. 


It seems Lily's owner is Andrea.  Andrea is 21 years old and has been with Lily since the dog was about 3 years old.  Lily is her best friend and Andrea had been devastated for a little more than a week since her mother told her Lily was missing.  Andrea was convinced that her mother had taken Lily to be put to sleep and was not telling her the truth.  Even so, Andrea launched flyers all over her neighborhood hoping that she really was lost and not gone forever.   Andrea told me that just yesterday she had decided that Lily was never going to be found and she was going to have to accept that.  


What is so amazing about this whole situation is that Lily, who could barely walk, managed to wander away from home a whole 30 city blocks!!  She had to cross dangerous roads and in fact was found standing in the middle of one of the busiest streets on that side of Indianapolis.  What is even more amazing is that Springer Rescue did a drive through of the neighborhoods she was found near but of course, there were no posters there because no one, including her owner could have imagined Lily could get that far.  To add even more amazement, Susan had been calling random vets and made the connection at a clinic that was more than 50 blocks away from Lily's home!   Turns out that one of Andrea's friends works at this clinic and had just randomly posted a flyer. 

And here is the incredibly happy ending.

Don't they both just look soooo happy!  

I don't know how much longer Andrea is going to have Lily due to her age and Andrea will go through all that grieving again.  But I know one thing, I am so grateful that life turned out right this time and Lily will spend her remaining time with her 'girl'. 

Wow....it's been an emotional day.