It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's Tillie, the Amazing Wonder Puppy!!! Tillie recently leapt from a second floor deck to the ground. This won her a five day, expenses paid stay at All Paws Animal Spa, Resort and Veterinary Hospital for hip replacement surgery. Just what was it that compelled her to jump? Was she wanting to get a "pawtograph" from Lassie? Was it a puppy protest in order to get daily servings of steak tartare? No matter. She is recovering nicely and recently got the hot pink stitches out of her hind leg. She will only have a slight limp to attest to her death-defying leap.

Originally, "Tillie" was short for "Atilla, the Hun-ey Colored Attack Dog." But she failed to live up to her given name and is now fondly known as "She Who Will Lick You to Death."

In 1997, Tillie had puppies following several hours of painful labor while sitting in my lap. It required a 5:00 a.m. trip to the emergency vet for a cesarean section (really!) before it was all over. Three ugly, needy, rat-like beasties dubbed "Brownie," "Monster Boy," and "Little Baby" eventually became cute (see photo at right) and stole my heart.
Clearly, giving the pups stupid names didn't protct me from becoming attached to them or feeling sad when they left. Perhaps I have included so many pooch pics here as an outlet for guilt or repressed maternal instincts.
The puppies are grown now and are living happily with new owners. "Little Baby" has incredibly long legs and can leap tall buildings with a single bound (gets it from her Mama, I guess). I probably would not purposefully go through the trauma of having puppies again. Still, life with canine kids was fun. Click on the thumbnails below to see other larger photographs.