L illy came bounding into my family’s life in 2016 when we were trying to mend our broken hearts after losing our beloved French bulldog Yoda. This complete bundle of joy had died at only three years old, from a back problem we were unaware of until it was too late. The plan was to get a Frenchie puppy that we could nurture and love from day one, but when we went to visit the breeder, she mentioned she also had a few older dogs.
When she let them into the room, we were instantly smitten by Lilly, a three-year-old golden girl whose personality was already very much formed. My dad, who had been particularly close to Yoda, had a heart in need of that extra bit of healing. Lilly ran to him first without hesitation, as if she instinctively knew he was the one who needed the licks and fuss the most.
Weeks after meeting Lilly and the pups, she was still all we could talk about – but we were unaware that she would ever be an option. A month or so later, however, we received a call from the breeder to say that she’d been thinking about trying to find a new home for Lilly – and after meeting us, she felt there could be no better family to raise her. Without hesitation, we agreed to pick her up.
We spent the first night with Lilly trying to encourage the same behaviour as Yoda, including not being allowed to go upstairs. We failed due to Lilly’s constant low grumble-bark of not wanting to be left out. She was out of the crate where she was supposed to sleep and up the stairs within seconds, bed-hopping between my parents, my sister and me, finally falling asleep curled up around one of us without an inch of space to spare.
We quickly learned that instead of another Yoda, we would have to live with a stubborn girl who always wanted to get involved and who knew exactly what she deserved. Over the eight and a half years we had with Lilly, she faced all the ups and downs of life. She welcomed new family members with snorts and licks, consoled us when we lost loved ones, adapted when my sister and I moved out, and happily joined us in our new homes for sleepovers.
She made every event more special, including opening her own (and others’) Christmas and birthday presents over the years. She was just as much a family member as the rest of us. I had a particularly close bond with Lilly, feeling that I understood her better than any human.
She was my constant throughout my 20s, as I was getting used to life back home after university. We spent lockdown being one another’s main source of entertainment and comfort, and when I moved into my flat post-Covid, she was with me for most of the time, with my parents’ agreement. They knew her favourite place to be was with me.
She always made coming home feel like the best thing I could possibly do. Whenever friends or colleagues asked how Lilly was, my reply was: beautiful and perfect. And although we lost Lilly in June, this answer remains true.
I’ll always feel as if I’m walking with Lilly by my side, hearing her deafening snores or feeling her lead in my hand. I’m forever grateful she picked us as her forever home..
