Ed has a new Buddy

[Jeff Higgins]

“Tilly” is her name, a two year old mostly Lab mix. We adopted her from the youngest son of one of my oldest friends, Pastor Dave. Dave is the guy I used to hunt up in Alaska with, and then in Wisconsin when my sons Chris and Alex went to school back there. He is the son of Pastor Bert, the guy who married Lori-Jo and I.

Ben is Dave’s youngest son. He is a mechanical engineer, and had been working locally for a design house and machine tool center I worked with throughout my Boeing career (my oldest son worked there for awhile as well). Ben is now 24 years old, unattached, foot loose and fancy free.

Tragedy struck his family some two years ago. Desi, Dave’s wife, Ben’s mother, died of a very aggressive, very fast onset brain cancer. Needless to say, it had a profound impact on all of them, maybe hitting Ben the hardest. He found he could no longer do the “nine to five” gig, as all he was doing was thinking about his mom. So he quit. Sold everything he had. Everything he owns now fits into a back pack. And he asked us to take Tilly.

Ben landed in Mexico City just a few days ago. He plans to spend the next several years backpacking through Central America, then perhaps South America, then maybe Europe. He is obviously unable to take Tilly with him, nor did he want to return her to the shelter from where he rescued her. We didn’t want to see that either. So, Ben brought her down for a “meet and greet” with Ed a couple of weeks ago, and they hit it right off, becoming fast friends. Now she lives here. She is a little sweetheart, full of licks and cuddles. About half the size of Ed, only two years old, and likely 7/8ths Lab.

Meet Tilly, the newest member of our family:



Not the best picture, I know, but trying to get these two knuckleheads to sit still, both at the same time and about in the same place… well, I’m sure you can imagine...

[Danimal16]

Jeff, I take it they are both sworn members of the royal and honorable order of the Tennis Ball?

[Seahawk]

I know Tilly will be delighted with her new home.

I wish Ben the best...I was not much older when my Mom died from aggressive cancer and I think of her every single day. How I processed the grief of course changed over the years but Ben is on a journey only he can take.

Bless him.

[Steve Carlton]

Good on you for taking Tilly! I hope Ben can heal and return to normal life before too long. We took my uncle's GSD "Bash" when he went on Walkabout. He decided to become an MD and was a very good one. He got Bash back, which was sad for us, but he and Bash had a special bond. That dog was something else!

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Danimal16

Jeff, I take it they are both sworn members of the royal and honorable order of the Tennis Ball?

LOL .... if you can balance a tennis ball on yer head.... getting a picture with 4 eyes boring a hole through ya is easy peasy!

Ed doesn't require a ball tho'...

Nice!

[Baz]

Welcome to the family, Tilly! And thanks for giving her a home, Jeff! She looks happy!

[Skytrooper]

My dog is named Tilly ! She is actually pretty amazing with a soccer ball !

[wdfifteen]

Looks like a win for all involved. Tilly is a beaut! How old is Ed? I never owned a Golden until we rescued Gracie Mae. She is nine and getting gray around the face, like Ed. How long do Goldens typically live?

Good luck to Ben. Sounds like he's on quite an adventure.

[Crowbob]

Not knowing Ed, it looks to me like he’s wondering WTF is this nonsense?

[jhynesrockmtn]

Well done. Two that get along are a delight. Looks like a great pair.

[Rusty Heap]

bring her out to the ranch for a run with Ed........

[Jeff Higgins]

It's amazing just how quickly they adapted to one another and how well they get along.

Ed, now five years old, had to be pretty well settled into his routine. I would have thought he would have been at least a little bit resentful and stand offish at this new intruder. He had become pretty set in his ways. That was absolutely not the case, though - he never skipped a beat, never showed any aggression, no "territorial" tendencies, and best of all, no jealousy.

Tilly is only two years old. Ben rescued her from the shelter when she was less than a year. Ben showed her great love and attention, and she was able to crawl out of that "shell" that too many shelter dogs regress into. We were all afraid that another big change like this would put her right back into it again. She did start out pretty timid, that not being helped by the fact that Ed goes all of 95 pounds to her 60. But, hoo boy, after a couple of days around here she has most definitely dropped all of that and is now very comfortable, behaving very much like she knows she is "home". Bold, friendly, energetic, rather petulant, and not afraid to put Ed in his place. She has moved right in...

Ed is our third Golden, after I had a couple of Labs before I got married and up until our kids were in grade school. Labs and Goldens seem to live about the same length of time. Our oldest Golden made it to fifteen, which is unusual, with about eleven or twelve being more the norm.

Golden's faces seem to start to grey at about five, some later, maybe up to seven or eight. Seems young to me, since Labs seem to start to grey later, but all three of our Goldens were grey by six or seven at the oldest.

As far as Ben, I feel his pain. I lost my dad when I was 18. Doing so changed the course of my life entirely, and not in a good way. I firmly believe that the Good Lord sent my wife my way to save me from myself and get me back on track. She did a wonderful job - I'm equally firm in my belief that I would not be here typing this today had she not "rescued" me.

Ben, while equally devastated, is on a better path than I chose. I could tell, though, that he really, really needed to "get out". I found a far different, very self destructive path "out". He chose a much, much better one. One through which he can heal, in his own way, in his own time. And the Lord might even send someone his way as well. God knows Ben deserves it far more than I did.

[KFC911]

Like Ed wasn't gonna accept a good lookin' Tilly to chase

[wdfifteen]

This thread makes me smile.

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

This thread makes me smile.

Dogs do that.

[Jeff Higgins]

This just keeps getting better...

Tilly has not had free run of our house. We have been introducing her to parts of it as she gets more comfortable in it, and earns our trust. Ben told us she was a "chewer". It's now becoming apparent, however, that her chewing may been out of boredom, being left alone at home, inside, all day while Ben was at work. She has demonstrated no such tendencies here. But, out of an abundance of caution, she has not been allowed down the hall, nor into the bedrooms. Until this morning...

My wife and I were sitting in the living room, enjoying out morning cups of coffee and some conversation. We had left the bedroom doors open, where previously we were pretty vigilant about closing them with Tilly in the house. Well, next thing we know, there is all kinds of growling and barking emanating from the hallway. Ed is lounging with us, so it's not him. All three of us head down the hall to investigate.

There's Tilly, growling and barking at our bed. Or, more precisely, as we determined, a pillow on our bed. I confirmed this by walking past her and picking it up, at which point she went absolutely ballistic, running away down the hall and hiding behind the couch.

She finally got brave enough to come back, slinking down the hall like only a terrified dog can do. All three of us were standing there kind of snickering (or at least I think Ed was, based on his subsequent actions). I had tossed the offending pillow back on the bed, out of sight of poor Tilly. All seemed well...

Until Ed jumped up on the bed, grabbed the pillow, and proceeded to jump down and chase Tilly down the hall with it. I'm not convinced it was intentional, since Ed is a convicted repeat offender with regards to pillow thievery, but the timing could not have been better. Or worse. He chased her for about three laps around the kitchen, dining room, and living room before I was able to intervene. I thought Tilly was going to pee on the floor.

I was finally able to intercept Ed with "his" pillow. Tilly calmed down, sniffed it rather tentatively, and started wagging her tail. She finally wound up taking her nap with her chin on the pillow.

She's learning the ropes. At times it's been a steep learning curve. Ed has been no help whatsoever. The problem is, I'm not sure if he is just that stupid, or if he is a rather intelligent, conniving smart ass, expert at playing the former. I'm leaning towards the latter...

[Danimal16]

Jeff that is funny as heck!
I think Ed is what you suspect.

[Steve Carlton]

My brother's Siberian Husky growls to talk. You can be petting her and you'll hear a faint growl, like you're really irritating her. But you're not. Sometimes when you walk in the room, she'll vary her growl like she's talking to you. It's odd and funny, but she's a sweetheart.

[KFC911]

Dawgs ... just being dawgs ..... yep !

[Rusty Heap]

IF labs are so smart, do they know lefty loosey righty tighty?