Name: Lily - approx. 4 y/o
Family Members: Lisa, Hugh, Ainsely (13), Brenna (10)
How long as Lily been in the family? 1 year
Professions: Kindergarten Paraprofessional and Health & Fitness Coach
Location: Marietta, GA
Nicknames: Lilybean, Lilybug, Sausage, Beanieboo, Beanie, Butterbean
5 words that best describe Lily:
- Sweet
- Lazy
- Smart
- Silly
- Loving
What makes Lily unique? She loves to get under covers or blankets. She will walk up to you and start grunting at you until you put a blanket on her to go to sleep. She also likes to lay on top of things. She will jump on the bed to lay down with her paws on clothes, folded up blankets or pillows. She will also lay on laundry that is on the floor.
Lily on her suntanning perch!
Rescue Story: We had a previous rescue dog who lived to be almost 17. We were without a dog for almost 2 years before we felt we were ready to adopt again. The Homeless Pet Foundation has an adoption center at the end of our street. Lisa had been looking online at the dogs and had seen Lily a couple of times but she didn't get a good vibe from the pictures. We went to the shelter and the other dogs were outside. The volunteer said " Lily is inside with the staff, if you want to see her". Lisa and the girls went inside to look and Lily was laying on the floor as the staff was cleaning around her. She was one of the volunteers' favorite and we were told the staff would "check her out" when they could to take her home for weekends. The girls laid on the floor to play with her and she didn't move, she just soaked up the attention. Her previous owner was traveling more with work and didn't want to keep her boarded, so she brought Lily to this shelter. We were told Lily had been in the shelter for over a year because she is a grey pit mix.
Adoption day for Lily!
What is your favorite pastime as a family? Walking with her in Kennesaw National Park. She loves the water and the trails. Another pastime would be watching TV with her on the bed - she is so precious and relaxed, and she snores!
What is life like since you rescued Lily? When we adopted her, we were a little apprehensive because of the breed. We had no experience with pits and she is a bigger dog than we thought we were looking for. Lisa especially was intimidated by her size and the breed. The more we researched and got to know Lily, we just loved her. We were amazed that she was in the shelter for a year...she is simply a great addition to our family. We simply fell in love with her. She has brought us love and joy in so many ways.
We are definitely dog people and Lily has fit right in. She is calm, has low energy and sleeps with our girls at night. She was sleeping on their beds but we had to move her to her kennel because she was too much of a bed hog for the girls!! We can't imagine what someone would have to do with this breed to train them to be aggressive or fight - that is just not in her nature at all. She is a wonderful ambassador for pit mixes!
Photographers Note: My good friend and sometimes Shine A Light Photographer's assistant referred this wonderful family to me for the project. The day of the photo shoot happened to be right around Lily's adopt-a-versary, so I brought her a cookie to celebrate. It never hurts to butter up one of your subjects before a shoot. Even with the cookie, she still took some time to warm up to me, especially when I had that large black object pointed at her. She is a very quiet and reserved girl (at least with strangers). You can just see her watching and observing everything. Once you get down on the floor and scratch under her chin, well then you are in! It was so great to see her with the girls and to see how much they love her; and she them.
I so appreciate this family giving her a chance even though they had some reservations in the beginning. In true pit bull fashion she won them over and by doing that has now created two young advocates for the breed, who I know will continue to spread the message about what wonderful dogs they really are!
Future Pit bull advocates!