Meet Lilly - a Brookside BarkeryGolden Retriever

My golden retriever, Lilly, has led an amazing life for a nine year old! Her most recent adventure is how she came to live with us.

Lilly and her daughter Maggie belonged to my uncle who is a career Marine. They are third generation goldens in our family – my uncle bought Lilly's mother while stationed in Hawaii. Finally approaching retirement after living all over the U.S., they moved back to Missouri. Lilly was six then, and starting to transition from an adult to a senior pup, though you wouldn't know it by watching her play fetch! However, she suffers from severe noise anxiety and, one year on the Fourth of July, she ran away. Despite desperate efforts from our family and the fact that Lilly had been micro-chipped, she was not found.

A year later, my uncle was informed that he was going to be moved to North Carolina and would not be able to take Maggie along. My husband and I were newly-married and had just closed on our first home, so we eagerly agreed to add to our new family – Maggie came with us! Over the next year, Maggie became our world. Little did we know, our world was going to get a little bigger.

While out of town on a girl's trip, I got a call late on a Friday night. The microchip company had "found my dog." I was immediately in shock thinking Maggie had somehow got away (she's an inside dog)! I called my husband and he told me Maggie was right beside him. Thinking there was a mistake, I called the company back and they noted that we had two dogs listed. THEY FOUND LILLY!!! After two years of being estranged from our family, Lilly was found on a farm 30 miles from her original home. She had been well-cared for, but had no I.D. on who had fostered her for these years.

Now we are one big happy family. One of our favorite things to do is the self-service pet wash at the Brookside Barkery. Since it's difficult for me to do both dogs, I can take them one on one and have some bonding time. The Brookside Barkery has helped Lilly and I form a trusting relationship. It's a fun time for the both of us: she gets loved on for an hour alone, and I don't have to clean hair off my bathroom ceiling!

As told to the Brookside Barkery & Bath by Holly, Amanda and Lilly