Lilly's Adventures 

Lilly will be one year old on June 1.  I assume she is full grown at approximately 10 pounds.  She is the smallest dog we have ever had.

We do not treat her any differently because of her size and I do not think she sees herself as any different from the rest of the dogs.  She goes on a two mile trail hike every day with Mike and all the other dogs and she tussles with them all the time.  In fact, particularly in Frankie's case, she starts the fight by biting his ears.  Last weekend though, two events happened that may have reminded her of her size and lack of invincibility.

The first event happened early Saturday morning.  I let all the dogs out of the house and then went back inside to begin my chores for the day.  Unbeknownest to me, our neighbors dropped by on horseback to return a baseball cap.  They left it on the front porch which meant they got very close to the house with the horses.  According to them, Lilly took in all this activity involving very large animals and strange humans and decided to get out of there.  She dashed into the woods right next to our house.  They continued on their ride.

After about twenty minutes or so when I had seen every dog but Lilly I became concerned.  She is usually hungry in the morning and so far had not come back to the house to eat.  I walked the periphery of the buildings.  I woke Mike and he got out the RZR and drove around looking for her.  I found the cap on the front porch and texted the Hemkers to find out if they had seen her.  When they filled me in we narrowed down our search.  The other dogs joined us for awhile but then they headed back to the house.  Finally after an hour of searching, while I was still in the timber back tracking down the walking path, Mike headed back to the house from the other end of the path.  He found Lilly waiting for us by the house none the worse for wear.  He says she was glad to see him.  I think she was just hungry.

The second event happened at the very end of the weekend.  One of Lilly's favorite activities is to join Mike and all the dogs on the dock while Mike feeds the fish.  I do not think she has any interest in the fish.  She just likes to eat the fish food that Mike is not suppose to drop at her feet but does anyway.

On this particular evening, there were five adults and all of the dogs on the dock.   Stories differ but in the excitement probably while Lilly was concentrating on searching the dock for catfish food, one of the dogs inadvertently bumped into her and she was so close to the edge, she fell in.

According to Heath, it took her a long time to surface and then when she did she was disorientated.  He felt compelled to jump in and save her.

Once on the dock, Lilly immediately ran to dry ground and tried to dry off but ended up covered in dry dust which just compacted all over her body.  Laura brought her back to the house in a towel and Mike gave her a bath.

As best we can tell, Lilly have been no ill effects from her adventures this weekend as she seems just as fearless as every.  We definitely learned though that one her least favorite things to do is to take a bath and she does not like being wet.