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I’m lying here with Lily on my chest, and while I love Tunch, I honestly don’t think I have ever loved any one or thing as fully and unconditionally as I love this dog. I know there are some of you who will not understand and think this is an attack on Tunch, but it just isn’t. I love him, too.

But this dog is just my once in a lifetime dog. I know how many whiskers she has, I love the feel of her wet nose, and when I look at her it just makes my chest ache I love her so much.

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The story:

I live with my girlfriend here in Durham NC, and we had been together about two years when we started talking about getting a dog. We had just discussed the idea that morning when her mom calls (they live in Clayton) to tell us that there was a stray in their yard, and she was really pregnant with their boxer’s pups (I wish I had a picture of their boxer, but let me just say he is the largest boxer you’d ever meet. If you want to make a really big dog, feed it a steak every night.)

Well, lo and behold, 2 days after she told us that, the stray had the pups on their property, all 8 beautiful boxer mixes. We took one (Lola, the white and black one) and we helped to find homes for all of the rest.

Cue to 1 1/2 years later, where after months of Lola whining like there’s no tomorrow, we decide we need to get her a sibling. This time we actually got to shop around and look for the dog that would best suit us. We went for a couple of months finding dogs on craigslist and boxer rescues, but by the time we put in a bid to adopt, each dog was already taken (which is a damn good thing, so we weren’t complaining.)

We finally found a dog that was at a shelter and was a nice boxer mix, male, and the description said he was really friendly. However, when we had been looking for dogs, we also saw the ads for Sweetie, the brown and white American Staffordshire terrier mix in the other picture. All the ad said was that her name was Bebe, and she was really sweet, and that she was a boxer mix (which she’s not.) So we knew that Sweetie was at this same shelter, but we really wanted to get a male because Lola was a female.

The day comes where we get down to the shelter, and as we pull into the parking lot, my girlfriend turns to me and tells me she’s going to fall in love with the first dog she sees. Well, sure enough, we walk into the cage area and right there, first cage on the left, is Sweetie. She was stick skinny, hair matted, and the backs of her paws had blisters on them from where she constantly pawed on the cage at the people that came in there. It was a very sad sight, but we wanted to take a look at the boxer mix we had originally gone in to see. We get him into the acquaintance room, and he doesn’t pay attention to us whatsoever. He just sniffed around the room, and then peed on the wall. Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed. However, the entire time we were in the room, Sweetie could see us from her cage and she was DYING for us to pet her. She had her ears fully back and was doing the little “I gotta pee” dance to the full hilt. We had the male boxer taken back to his cage, and we said we wanted to see her as well. Well, the second we got her into the room, she was all over us, just loving being petted and licking our faces. At that moment, we knew we didn’t even have to make a decision, Sweetie was going home with us.

Little did we know that we would be adopting the world’s most hyper dog. From the moment she stepped foot in our house, she has had a ball in her mouth at least 18 hours a day, just wanting us to throw it for her. I’ve even spent 6 hours straight throwing the ball with a chuck-it, and the only reason we quit was because we had to go in and eat dinner. She was still bringing us a rope toy at the table.

We originally got Sweetie so Lola would maybe stop whining, but now Lola whines and Sweetie wants us to throw the ball, so they now both require constant attention, but I tell you, I couldn’t be happier.

They’re both about 3 years old now, and every day we spend an hour and a half at the local dog park (Pineywood dog park, it’s on facebook!) throwing the ball for Sweetie and the frisbee for Lola.

Having these two dogs in our lives is the best thing I have ever done, and I still tear up when I’m remembering how sad Sweetie looked when we first got her.

I really just want to thank you, John, for all these wonderful stories about Lily and all the other dogs. I look forward to reading your blog every day, and though I love the snarkiness, the posts about the dogs are definitely my favorite.

Cheers,
Daniel

Consider this your open thread.

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