The Story of Lily the Flower.

My wife wanted a dog. Don't all great story's start with blaming someone? We lived in Roseburg, Oregon at the time; I was working at a local retail store out of the city. (Not much of a city though at only 21,000 population). We we're loving the outdoors but she needed a companion when I was at work. So, I asked around until someone told me of the Saving Grace shelter near Winchester.

It was a weekday and as we neared the building it was pouring down rain. To our surprise, the entire parking lot was filled with cars and we had to park the old Lumina in the slick mud on the side of the hill. We entered the facility into a line of 7-10 families dropping off every stray cat in the city. Fortunately, Saving Grace doesn't euthanize animals so there was little emotion except for the the rains depressing drizzle. We we're shown to the back of the facility to the "Large Dog" section. We looked through the remarkably indiverse selection of sad dogs and found the one. Lily came forward to the front of her cage and gave that look that screams "Take me home, I'm a cute, smart, cold and lonely dog that will love you forever."

She was 3-years-old, making her less expensive than the puppies, micro-chipped, something we will never go without again on an animal, and spayed so we could take her home immediately. Another couple was looking at her and discussing buying so we had to act fast. We managed to get her purchased, licensed and all signed over in a snap. Let me ask you, have you ever had that feeling that some things are too good to be true? Well, lesson learned. When we got her home she became the worst dog ever. She peed on the carpet, destroyed her chew toys, ate a tennis ball, would fetch a stick but never bring it back and if she did she would never release it. She also loved to jump on the furniture, guests, and into the garbage. Everything imaginable for a bad dog to do, she did it. We definitely had our work cut out for us in the coming weeks.