We adopted Buddy from a town shelter in late October,2002. He was listed as a 2-1/2 year old dog who arrived at the shelter after being found on the street with what appeared to be his brother. We took him home and he let us know very early on that he was a blank slate. He knew NOTHING! Couldn't sit properly. No house training. He didn't even know how to work a tile floor or steps. Slowly, very slowly, he learned his way around. He discovered how to go up stairs but not down so every morning we had to drag him down. When he finally learned how to go down, he spent the evening just running up and down the steps.

As the warm weather neared, we found out that he has an instinctive distrust of ceiling fans. When we first turned it on, he freaked out. He scooted around the room trying to get away from it. After a minute he ran from room to room looking at the ceilings. Years later, he still keeps one eye on the fan if it moves.

Soon after we got Buddy, we started fostering dogs for LIGRR. Buddy loved every new dog that came in. Some were playmates, while others were just company. Fostering can be emotionally draining for the foster parents but we realized that it was also draining on Bud. After each dog left he got more depressed each time. He would sit in a slouch and drool. We decided that Buddy needed a permanent friend.

This is where Lily comes in. Lily was found wandering the woods where she had been spotted for two weeks. Each day she would come out of the woods and join a man walking his own dog. She tagged along and spent the morning with him. He gave her a meal, she played with his dog and then disappeared back to the wood until the next day. After two weeks of this routine, the man realized that she was starting to not look so good. He held onto her and called LIGRR. We were the local fosters and out home was available so we took her in. She was given the name Lily by the person who transported her to us because it was a “woodsy” kind of name. She was loaded with ticks, filthy and had stick so entwined with her fur that she was starting to get cut by them.

When she got to our home, she was a just a foster and wasn’t too happy. She howled the first night to protest her unfamiliar surroundings. It took a couple of days for her to relax. Then one day, she went up to Bubby and gave him a shove and started to wrestle and play. Buddy couldn’t believe it! They started to play and chase each other and have been best friends ever since. To this day, Buddy is still the only dog that she will play with.