Lily

 I took off work yesterday because I needed to take Lily to the vet to get her boobly cyst taken care of, that is not what happened.  There were severe underlying conditions that I was not aware of, the most major being that she was severely anemic.  Her white count was extremely high, her red blood cells were extremely low, and her platelet count was practically zero, meaning her blood had lost the ability to clot.  She had a lot of fluid in her abdominal cavity, and there was blood in that fluid, so she was experiencing internal bleeding.  Before he would even consider looking at the boobly cyst, my vet said she needed to be stabilized, her anemia brought under control, and source of the internal bleeding found and corrected.  Lily was a very sick dog and the possibility for her recovery was very poor, so I made the difficult decision, which was easier than I was expecting it to be.  And, as I gave her a final hug, and she nuzzled her nose up into my neck, I knew that she, too, was ready.

Those of you who read my books no doubt already suspect that Lily and Seig were the source for the Von Trapp Family Boxers, but Lily got special attention.  I used her AKC name, Lillian D'Aubert for the mysterious contact who provided the team with much needed information.

I will take a few days off, but not many.  Doing things, writing things, will keep me from sitting here moping around in my grief.

Believe me when I tell you it was such a joy to spoil her, she is going to be terribly missed.

Lillian D'Aubert
August 19, 2013 - March 18, 2024