Lily
aka Little-Bell, Little-Dog

Its hard to say it, let alone think it and accept it, but our beloved Lily is no longer with us. Lily, sister to Tucker, beloved companion of Cristin Dwyer and Matt Natti, and one of the most loved 'pets' of all time, passed on to doggy heaven Saturday, November 4th, 2006.

Its believed that she was attacked by a coyote in the night and sustained rather severe injuries. She was brought to a puppy ICU in Woburn, MA where she underwent 3 hours of surgery to save her. And while she made it through the surgery just fine and was in recovery - reports having it that she was licking the fingers of the vets there and seeming in good spirits - they hadn't noticed that her pancreas had ruptured, and subsequently she went into pancreatic shock and died. It was quick, and from what I understand, painless. She is buried with her toys and some treats at the Natti complex in Gloucester.

For those of you who didnt know her - she was one of a kind. She had an almost human quality to her that I have never really seen in any other animal - so much more than just a 'personality'. She was so sweet and funny - and way too addicted to playing with balls. She was a small little thing, but made up for it with big attitude. One of my most favorite things about her was her incessant need to be dominant over everyone and everything. It was an easy task to sway us people into submissiveness - just a cute, innocent look and a few licks to the face and we were hers. But it's a bit more complex in the doggy world where size, and more importantly, height DOES matter. So in order for her to properly express her dominence over the larger dogs, especially her brother Tucker, she would balance on her two front legs and stick her butt way up in the air, as far as she could get it without falling over forwards - and pee, making a little doggy-fountain - all in order to pee higher on the tree (or where-ever) than the other dogs. For someone who has studied evolution and Darwin's theories on the survival of the fittest such as myself, I know that that is a bit more than mere instict driving that impulse. That takes cunning and fore-thought, committment, and maybe even a little spite... all of which are pretty much solely human characteristics. The point is that she was just as much of one of the Holmesez as you or I, and she will be missed just the same.

Frankly, I could go on about Lily all day and night - with stories about her and our adventures, and if you would like to read about one of my most favorite memories of her, you can check out my blog post on MySpace, entitled "Something So Small". I also invite you to check out my collection of Lily photos I have put together in the Photo Gallery in memory of her. I have also set up that album so that YOU can login in and upload your own photos of her if you would like. The Username is 'lily' and the Password is 'littlebell'. Please dont abuse this, else I will have to take it down.

But in closing, I just want to send my love to all of the folks who loved her the most - the Dwyer and Natti families, Sean, Leila, Scotts, any of the climbing contingency, and the entire Holmes Family. She will be missed by all, and though she may be gone from this world, I know that she will live on in our hearts and minds. Lol... I was just thinking about how people say, "God's Speed" in situations like this... and it made me laugh to think that it's probably more appropriate in this situation to say, "God's Peed" and to think that Lily is up there somewhere trying to pee higher.

Love ya Lil.