I meet Mom for the first time
My name is Lilly, I think. I got really confused about my name for a while, but my new Mom and Dad are calling me Lilly all the time now, so I think that’s my new name.
I had a previous home and they called me Riley. I got used to it, but when I moved in with my new Mom and Dad, Dad kept calling me Lilly walking around singing a song called “Darling Lilly.”
I’m a Harlequin Great Dane. That’s the best kind. I’m a beautiful young girl (I don’t want you to think I’m stuck up, but I’m just being honest here.), white with black markings. Mom says that my markings are perfect for a show dog.
As a matter of fact, I was being groomed to be a show dog. I guess that’s kinda like a little girl being groomed for the beauty contest circuit. I had another life, but it wasn’t much fun. I lived in a kennel most of the time. There were three other male dogs in the house and they were always aggressive. One day, when no one was at home, one of them broke into my kennel and did unimaginable things to me.
#MeToo.
I ended up pregnant, but it didn’t go well. I got really sick and my parents took me to the hospital. The doctor put me to sleep and when I woke up, I had bandages all over my belly. I lost the puppies and had my female parts removed.
It took me a while to recover, then my parents couldn’t keep me anymore. I was moved around to a couple of foster homes and ended up in a Great Dane Rescue place.
One day, a pretty blonde lady came to see me. It didn’t take long for me to win her over. I went home with her, but when we got there, it wasn’t what I expected at all.
I had a previous home and they called me Riley. I got used to it, but when I moved in with my new Mom and Dad, Dad kept calling me Lilly walking around singing a song called “Darling Lilly.”
I’m a Harlequin Great Dane. That’s the best kind. I’m a beautiful young girl (I don’t want you to think I’m stuck up, but I’m just being honest here.), white with black markings. Mom says that my markings are perfect for a show dog.
As a matter of fact, I was being groomed to be a show dog. I guess that’s kinda like a little girl being groomed for the beauty contest circuit. I had another life, but it wasn’t much fun. I lived in a kennel most of the time. There were three other male dogs in the house and they were always aggressive. One day, when no one was at home, one of them broke into my kennel and did unimaginable things to me.
#MeToo.
I ended up pregnant, but it didn’t go well. I got really sick and my parents took me to the hospital. The doctor put me to sleep and when I woke up, I had bandages all over my belly. I lost the puppies and had my female parts removed.
It took me a while to recover, then my parents couldn’t keep me anymore. I was moved around to a couple of foster homes and ended up in a Great Dane Rescue place.
One day, a pretty blonde lady came to see me. It didn’t take long for me to win her over. I went home with her, but when we got there, it wasn’t what I expected at all.
You mean I can't pee on the tree?
My fairy tale dream was to live in a big house with a loving family, a Mom a Dan and 2.3 kids. The house would be three bedrooms with 2.5 baths and have lots and lots of yard with green lawn and trees and squirrels to chase.
That wasn’t what I got.
As we pulled into the parking lot Mom said, “Lilly, this is your new home, Chula Vista Marina.”
This wasn't a big house with 2.3 kids. My new mom put me on a leash and let me through the paved parking lot. We walked a long way and came to a gate the led to a long bridge. We went through the gate and walked all the way to the end of the bridge.
Mom stopped in front of this big white thing with two trees growing out of it floating in the water. She wanted me to jump up on it.
No way.
It didn’t look safe. It just sat in the water. What if it sank and I was on it? Then I’d be in the water.
She took me to an opening in the fence around the edges of the white thing and wanted me to climb a little ladder to get up. Not me, baby.
She put my front paws on the white thing, but I turned away. After several tries, she was fast enough to get my paws up, then lifted my bottom. I had no choice but to go ahead.
I was on the white thing. It was weird. There were obstacles all over the ground. The ground felt hard, like the pavement in the parking lot.
There was a kind of little house on the ground. I’d never seen anything like it before. It had a real roof and windows, but it wasn’t as tall as I was. I could look right over it.
Mom climbed up with me and opened a little door in the house. There was a long ladder leading down into a dark hole.
Mom called Dad and they tried to get me to go down in the hole. Uh-uh. If I was worried about being on top of this thing, no way I was going down into it. What if it sank and I was stuck inside. I couldn’t get out. I’d drown.
That wasn’t what I got.
As we pulled into the parking lot Mom said, “Lilly, this is your new home, Chula Vista Marina.”
This wasn't a big house with 2.3 kids. My new mom put me on a leash and let me through the paved parking lot. We walked a long way and came to a gate the led to a long bridge. We went through the gate and walked all the way to the end of the bridge.
Mom stopped in front of this big white thing with two trees growing out of it floating in the water. She wanted me to jump up on it.
No way.
It didn’t look safe. It just sat in the water. What if it sank and I was on it? Then I’d be in the water.
She took me to an opening in the fence around the edges of the white thing and wanted me to climb a little ladder to get up. Not me, baby.
She put my front paws on the white thing, but I turned away. After several tries, she was fast enough to get my paws up, then lifted my bottom. I had no choice but to go ahead.
I was on the white thing. It was weird. There were obstacles all over the ground. The ground felt hard, like the pavement in the parking lot.
There was a kind of little house on the ground. I’d never seen anything like it before. It had a real roof and windows, but it wasn’t as tall as I was. I could look right over it.
Mom climbed up with me and opened a little door in the house. There was a long ladder leading down into a dark hole.
Mom called Dad and they tried to get me to go down in the hole. Uh-uh. If I was worried about being on top of this thing, no way I was going down into it. What if it sank and I was stuck inside. I couldn’t get out. I’d drown.
In the pilot house of my new home Dad put a long step about halfway down the ladder. Mom tried to get me to go down. Not in this lifetime.
Dad came up the ladder. Mom went down and held my leash. I couldn’t turn away. Dad, the evil bastard, lifted my hind end and forced me into the hole. There was nothing I could do. I had to go forward and land on the little platform. My momentum carried me forward and I had to jump down onto the wooden floor. I was entombed in the death trap.
That was my new home. If I went forward, I found a cabin with a couple of beds, but they were so high up, I couldn’t jump up into them. Mom lifted me up a couple of times, and they were plenty comfortable, but then Mom went to another room and left me alone.
I wasn’t buying. She was leaving me there to die when the thing sank. I jumped right down.
In the middle of this floating house, there was a kitchen and table. Dad spent a lot of time sitting at the table doing something with his lap top. I never understood what was so fascinating.
If I went further back, there was another room. It was big and comfortable. There were seats all around it and above and behind the seats there were beds. I loved the big bed in the middle, but the old ogre wouldn’t let me lay there. Whenever they left me alone though, I jumped up in the big bed and took a nice snooze.
I learned that this floating house was called a boat. I got familiar with it and found out that the front part was called forward and the back part, aft. The kitchen was called a galley and the bathrooms were called heads. (I never figured that one out.)
There was something wrong with Dad’s leg. He hobbled around on the boat and whenever we left the boat, he had a metal stick that he leaned on to walk. It wasn’t much fun. I couldn’t run with him the way I did with Mom.
Dad came up the ladder. Mom went down and held my leash. I couldn’t turn away. Dad, the evil bastard, lifted my hind end and forced me into the hole. There was nothing I could do. I had to go forward and land on the little platform. My momentum carried me forward and I had to jump down onto the wooden floor. I was entombed in the death trap.
That was my new home. If I went forward, I found a cabin with a couple of beds, but they were so high up, I couldn’t jump up into them. Mom lifted me up a couple of times, and they were plenty comfortable, but then Mom went to another room and left me alone.
I wasn’t buying. She was leaving me there to die when the thing sank. I jumped right down.
In the middle of this floating house, there was a kitchen and table. Dad spent a lot of time sitting at the table doing something with his lap top. I never understood what was so fascinating.
If I went further back, there was another room. It was big and comfortable. There were seats all around it and above and behind the seats there were beds. I loved the big bed in the middle, but the old ogre wouldn’t let me lay there. Whenever they left me alone though, I jumped up in the big bed and took a nice snooze.
I learned that this floating house was called a boat. I got familiar with it and found out that the front part was called forward and the back part, aft. The kitchen was called a galley and the bathrooms were called heads. (I never figured that one out.)
There was something wrong with Dad’s leg. He hobbled around on the boat and whenever we left the boat, he had a metal stick that he leaned on to walk. It wasn’t much fun. I couldn’t run with him the way I did with Mom.
You should see the other guy
One day, when Mom was at work, Dad was going to take me outside. He had a plywood platform that he attached to the ladder with clamps. We could both stand on this platform and he helped me climb up to the deck. It wasn’t long before I learned to climb up and down the steps by myself, but this was early on.
I jumped up onto the platform and the old man climbed up too. Then something happened. There was a loud crack and the platform fell free. Dad landed on the deck and smashed his head into the cabinet under the chart table. I fell on top of him.
I thought it was very nice of him to fall first so that I had something soft to land on. It scared me out of my mind. I ran into the aft cabin, jumped up onto the big bed and curled up.
Dad lay on the floor with his head stuck inside the cabinet. I thought I should check on him, so I climbed down and walked to the pilot house. He just lay there. I poked at him with my nose and he groaned, laughed and rubbed my ears.
Eventually, he got up and fixed the platform, so we could go out. He climbed up on it and it didn’t fall, so I decided to give it a try. I gingerly jumped up on the settee next to the ladder and tested my weight on the platform. It held.
We climbed out of the boat and went to the park, so I could run and do my business.
We lived on the boat for about three months. I had dog friends on each dock and Mom made play dates for us. I found my favorite places to poop and pee, then my world was turned upside down again. Dad had to have an operation to fix his knee and we needed to move off the boat.
What a nightmare.
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