Meet Lilly

I briefly mentioned our new baby Lilly in my last post, tonight I am doing a post all about her as I promised I would.

I adopted Lilly formerly Sweetie, from a local Pomeranian & other small breed dog rescue here in Oregon.

 Displaced Pets Rescue.

www.Displacedpetsrescue.com

Lilly is a 3 legged dog, Leo (our 3 legged cat)  inspired me to adopt another "Special needs" fur-kid. Lilly is about 2.5 years old and weighs 3.8lbs she is the smallest other than Little Bunny Fufu of our fur-kids.

I felt like when I saw Lilly listed for adoption on Facebook that she was meant to be with me. Just a couple days before I first saw Lilly on Facebook. I was out shopping on black Friday with my Sister Chantel, and I was telling her how I decided I only wanted to adopt rescue dogs in the future ( way in the future), I also said I would be very willing to adopt a black dog, because I recently read statistics that a black animal is something like 10 times less likely to be adopted from a shelter or rescue, and I think they are all adorable no matter the color so it might as well be black! I then also mentioned I totally wouldn't mind at all if the dog only had 3 legs since having Leo. Then 2 days after this convo I see Lilly  who is in a local rescue, she is black and 3 legged, and a Pomeranian (my favorite breed) it seriously felt like it was meant to be or a sign or something. 

When I first saw Lilly on Facebook I instantly felt something. But was not at all planning on adopting a dog for many more years, since I already have 3. I was under the impression my city limit was 3 dogs like the neighboring city I grew up in limit is. A few days passed and I kept thinking about Lilly who was then "Sweetie". I contacted my city and was shocked to find out my city limit is 4 dogs! I truly feel like it was meant to be. So I filled out the application and was approved to go meet Lilly. I adopted her the following week the same day I went to meet her.
12.10.13

Lilly doesn't let missing a leg slow her down!

This photo was taken on Christmas day when we took my 4 dogs & my parents 2 Shih Tzu's on a big family dog walk. Lilly walks great on her leash. Her walk is really cute it's a little hoppy.

Lilly has already learned how to go up the stairs too. Still working on learning to go down. She seemed confused about the stairs when we first brought her home so she must not have had stairs before. It's so cute how Bentley goes down and nudges her to go up, in the video.

Lilly was such a angel for her bath.

Lilly is also perfectly potty trained already, which is so nice. She is potty pad trained, but will ask to go outside too which is so perfect because that's how my other dogs are trained too.

 

 

Save A Life Rescue!

I have recently in the past 8 months or so became a lot more knowledgeable about how important it is to adopt from Shelters & Rescues. As you probably know if you read my blog regularly, I purchased Bella, Lacie, & Bentley as puppies, as well as Billie my Persian cat from a breeder as a kitten. At this time I was very unaware of how many animals are being euthanized every day in shelters. It breaks my heart that perfectly healthy dogs & cats are being put down everyday because of simply over crowding, and from now on I only plan to adopt. What opened my eyes to this problem was articles posted on Facebook I started "liking" a lot of rescue pages, and it has truly opened my eyes to rescuing. I understand the desire to have a cute little puppy, but please consider that cute little puppy is only a puppy for such a short time please just consider saving a life of an adult dog or cat whom will have a much hard time finding a family than a puppy will.

 Oregon the state I live in, does have high adoption rate compared to other states, but it is still defiantly not high enough! These are the statistic the kind lady from the rescue I adopted Lilly from sent to me.
"This report for 2012 (came out in april 2013) they were still at 14% euth for dogs in 2012, which is within the state average"

 

 

Please Don't Support Puppy Mills

Another huge problem is puppy mills and the more people who buy puppies especially from pet stores the more they are supporting puppy mills. If you are going to get a puppy, please make sure you are not getting a puppy mill puppy. When you see that cute puppy at the pet store please look at images on the Internet of the poor adult parent dogs of these puppies, living lives of slavery breeding with no love and little to no basic care, most don't even get names just a number. I feel sick when I think about that fact that my sweet Bella possibly came from a puppy mill type situation. Again at the time I didn't even really know what a puppy mill was. When I went to the breeders house to pick up Bella she did not invite us inside, she had us stand outside, while she brought Bella too us. When she brought Bella out, Bella wouldn't hardly even open her eyes, my Mother questioned it, and one of the breeders kids said " it is because she has been in the dark she's not used to the light" the breeder glared at her child and quickly shut her up. I did get to see Bella's Mother she happened to be running around in the yard with the kids, but when I asked to see the Father I was told he was "unavailable" with no explanation, whatever that means. I am so happy I did end up getting Bella because I love her so much, and she is a great dog, and in a way I feel like I saved her from that place, but I feel soooo bad that I possibly supported a puppy mill type operation because I was uneducated. The more people that buy these puppies the more the problem grows. Also a lot of these puppies later end up in the shelters. At least I know I kept that from ever happening to Bella because I promise to all my pets I will have them their entire lives. I know when you see a cute puppy at a pet store, you may think to yourself well someone needs to buy this puppy, which is true and how I used to think, but hopefully eventfully if people stop supporting puppy mills the problem will someday lessen, I can only hope. The reason most puppy mill puppies are in best stores is because a good breeder would never sell a puppy not knowing exactly what type of home it was going too, puppy mill type breeders could care less and are happy to sell them to pet stores. It is all about supply & demand. The only way to stop the supply is to stop the demand! I am so thankful Bella has not had any really major health issues like many puppies that come from those kind of situations do. Lacie & Bentley both came from non-breeders who's family dogs just had puppies,  it's unfortunate that because of all the over breeding in puppy mills this has become unacceptable by most who promote rescuing, but I do now see why, there is way more dogs than there is homes for, and by breeding you are only contributing to this problem. In a way every new puppy born is taking away a home from a shelter pet.

I also just want to say I am sorry if  I sound like I am knocking breeders, I know there are still good breeders and not all are bad by any means, and if you really have to get a puppy rather than adopting please find a responsible breeder, who loves and takes good care of their dogs. I truly feel bad for the responsible breeders because puppy mills are ruining it for them, but at this point we have way to many breeders. There is way more dogs than there is homes for, something has to be done and spreading the word about adopting and rescuing is important.

This quote is one the Rescue I adopted Lilly from uses, that I really like.

"Adopting from a rescue saves two lives.
The one you bring home and the one you make room for"

One of my favorite quotes

 " I may not be able to change to world, but I can change the world for that one dog"

Lilly has been fitting in with my other 3 poms perfectly, they were very accepting of her. I am one proud Pom Mom.

Lilly is even already posing for pictures.

I of course had to take new group picture with Lilly included. Now I just need my sister to come over and take one with me in it too for my blog header. My bed is pretty full now, I cant believe we have 10 fur-babies. Don't worry we won't be adopting anymore for a very long while, these 10 keep me very busy, but they are so worth it, I love them so much. They are my Fur-ever babies!  

 Please spay & neuter your pets & really considering rescuing when looking for a new furry family member, you could save a life!