Tiger Lily

One year ago in February 2015, I saw a picture of a tiny puppy on my local SPCA website, and I fell in love. The very next day I met that puppy and the day after that she was mine. I adopted Tiger Lily one year ago and what a year it has been! Tiger Lily has brought so much joy to my life and I have loved watching her grow over the past year into such an amazing dog. When I adopted Tiger Lily she weighed only three pounds and now fully grown she weighs ten! In a year she's pretty much tripled in size, but she's still my little peanut. 

I get a lot of questions from people asking what kind of dog Tiger Lily is and for the longest time I had no idea. The SPCA guessed a terrier mix, but I was unsure if that was true. My mom bought a dog DNA kit through Amazon that had great reviews and came highly recommended. We did the test and found out Tiger Lily is one quarter toy poodle, one quarter shih tzu, and one half pretty much every other dog that exists. Basically, half of her DNA is distinctive and the other half is a mix of about ten other breeds. Even knowing what I know, when people ask me what she is I just say she's adorable!

Tiger Lily's personality is the thing that makes her so adorable. She's still toddles around acting like a puppy most of the time, but then she suddenly becomes tough and spunky like she's one of the "big kids" aka my two older dogs. Tiger Lily is in her mischievous phase and it doesn't help that she's still in her chewing phase as well. During the holidays I got her a red collar with bells on it and we haven't taken it off of her. Not because it's cute, but because we always know where she is within the house when we hear the bells ringing. Tiger Lily's favorite things to do are playing with her best friend Oliver the cat, playing fetch with her ball, laying on a lounger in the sun, and eating a puppuccino aka whipped cream.

I absolutely love to dress up Tiger Lily! I never thought I would be one of those dog parents but I totally am. There's just one problem, Tiger Lily hates wearing clothes. Anytime I put a new dress, shirt, or sweater on her, she looks so sad and acts like she can't move. After a while she gets used to wearing whatever I put on her, but she still gives me that look of why am I making her wear something. The only time Tiger Lily likes to wear clothes is during the winter. She gets cold very easily because she's so tiny and even though in pictures it looks like she has a lot of hair she really doesn't.  

Adopting Tiger Lily has truly changed my life over this past year. Last February, I was in a bad mental state. I was dealing with being out of school for almost a year, being unemployed, and having heighten anxiety. Having Tiger Lily in my life gave me a reason to wake up every day. She gave me something to be responsible for other then myself. Most importantly, she gave me the unconditional love and companionship I was needing in my life. People always say that when you adopt a dog you're saving their life, but I believe that Tiger Lily saved my life as well.

I'm so excited to see that the future holds for me and Tiger Lily! We are going to have many more years of fun and adventures that I hope to share with you all! One last thing, if you are looking to add a new pet to your life, whether it be a dog, cat, or any type of animal, please adopt don't shop. Somewhere there is a loving animal waiting for their forever home in your heart.