I graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in December of 2009 with a Bachelor's degree in Communication. Prior to graduating, I decided to continue to reside in the vibrant town of Boulder until the end of my lease in June of 2010. While waiting out my lease, I continued working at Art+Soul, a contemporary art gallery on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, since I absolutely loved my job. This not a huge surprise, because who doesn't enjoy working with contemporary art, amazing jewelry, and incredible people? I knew that time would fly by in the blink of an eye from December to June. I was constantly sorting through where I wanted to call home next.
The small town girl inside of me had hopes of relocating to a smaller town after leaving Boulder in June 2010. Growing up in Durango, Colorado, I always have had the desire to move back the mountains. For anyone from a small mountain town, you understand I'm sure. For all of you who think Boulder is the mountains, you might have grown up somewhere with rolling hills or plains and the foothills that surround Boulder feel mountainous enough for you. I won't try to deny for one second that I don't adore the town of Boulder, it has literally everything you could every want within a 20 min drive. Unfortunately, there is a price tag with comes with the luxuries that Boulder provides, but there are few careers right out of college that can compensate for that high cost. So between my love for the mountains and needing to escape the cost of living in Boulder, I ended up decided I wanted to live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I started searching for careers and rentals in Steamboat immediately and was excited about what might come. Finally, in the middle of May I took a weekend off work and went up to visit the town, only to realize that it doesn't have nearly the vital economy that I had hoped. The reality set in that making a decent living in a town of that nature would be a stretch, so back to the drawing board. In the mean time, my boss had found a wonderful women to fill my place at the gallery since my plan had been to move by the end of May. I found myself with little direction for where to go next...and then it hit me!
I desperately wanted to go on a little trip, my last summer vacation if you will. I consider myself to be extremely fortunate in so many aspects of my life. I am lucky to be surrounded by the most loving and supportive family and friends. I discussed the idea of a road trip with my coworkers and receiving only "yes, you have to do it!" from all of them. I found myself nervous to ask my parents about my crazy new plan for the obvious reasons, they just supported me through college and would most likely want to see me starting a career ASAP. I went home for a few days and helped my parents prepare for our annual "camping" trip at Dallas Creek in the National Forest outside of Telluride. While I was home, my step-dad actually brought up the idea that he thought I should go on a trip while I had some time off work. I was completely shocked to hear the recommendation coming from one of my parents. A day or two later, I brought the idea up to my mom and she fully supported it as well. Who knew my parents could be so incredible to encourage me to take time off work and discover the country right after they funded my childhood and college education. All I knew is that I was one lucky girl! After the camping trip ended, I headed back home to Boulder to ties up some loose ends and pull my stuff together to embark on my trip!
It is important to note that I am an independent girl and always have been, but I have never set out on a vacation on my own. Inertia seems to have quite the effect on my life, seeing as I adore alone time at home in my little apartment in Boulder more than what is probably healthy. It is so easy to get set in your ways and I am the first to admit that I certainly had done just that. I loved running my dogs every morning in the same gorgeous tree-lined neighborhood filled with houses ranging from half a million dollars and upwards to well over two million dollars that was just an underpass away from my apartment complex. I found myself baking and cooking as often as possible for reasons that I cannot understand in any way other than it is one of my absolute passions. Surprising, because growing up I have little interest in learning to cook and spent only enough time in the kitchen to back chocolate chip cookies about once a month. Both my mother and father are fabulous cooks, so I guess I just never felt the need to cook. I began cooking in college, but really found my love for it once I moved into my own apartment and had a clean, fully stocked kitchen to play in at all times. Between living in one of the most beautiful cities in the nation, spending time outside with my dogs, and baking/cooking, I always had a hard time leaving Boulder for more than a few days.
I made a list of everywhere that I had wanted to visit in the US, which included places like Austin, TX and Savannah, GA. It being the middle of June, I realized that I needed to get on the road quickly or else the heat and humidity of the South might kill me. I got home on a Thursday and planned my departure for this trip on the following Tuesday. I spent hours on mapquest.com trying to map out how to make a logical order for visiting the places on my list. Finally, I decided I would go from Boulder to Houston and base there for a week or so because I had a few close friends in the area. From Houston I would make short trips to Austin and San Antonio and then be on my way to Savannah, then Charleston, SC. After a few days there I wanted to hit Nashville and then Santa Fe, NM and then back to Durango to visit my family who would be taking care of my dogs and regroup for round two of the trip, the West Coast. I plan to set out by plane to Bellingham, WA, Bend, OR, down through Northern California, across Utah and back to Durango again. Now for someone who was a rookie at trip planning and traveling by car around that nation, this trip seemed a little overwhelming but exciting at the same time.
Tuesday morning, I planned to meet my step-dad who was in town for a meeting at 10AM to have him pick up my girls (Lily, my 6 year old and Layla my 2 year old, both golden retrievers) and take them back to Durango to stay with my parents while I was out traveling. As life often goes, just when I thought I had everything planned out and ready for my trip, things changed dramatically. I woke up early to get my bags packed, dogs packed up to go to my parents, and my apartment ready to leave it for a few weeks. The morning was going smoothly, nothing out of the normal. I went on a short walk around 6AM with my girls, packed and cleaned, fed my girls around 7:30, and set out on another short walk with the pups around 8. I was just walking them around my apartment complex to go "hurry up", Layla (the younger one) found one of her dog friends and so I let her free to play with him in this grassy open space area. She ran out into the parking lot and around one of the apartment buildings. I chased after her and found her chewing a stick under a tree in the shade.
We were walking back to the apartment when all of a sudden Lily (the older one) wouldn't walk anymore and collapsed onto the pavement. She had what appeared to be a seizure or something of that nature and then went out. She came back to it briefly, but I could tell she wasn't really coherent. She then went out again. She came back to it again, but wouldn't get up and couldn't walk or do anything. I was freaking out and didn't know what to do. She had never had any signs of epilepsy or any other health concerns and was up-to-date on her vet visits. She had acted completely normal that morning, eating breakfast just fine, playing and even trying to grab her leash and walk herself literally seconds before she went down. I called my mom in Durango in panic and she said to find someone to help me carry her to the car and rush her to a vet's office. I asked a construction worker who was passing by to help and he tried to carry her, but seemed uncomfortable holding a sick dog. I asked him to hold Layla's leash and I tried to carry Lily. One of the things I had always feared the most became an issue though, all 105 lbs of me couldn't carry my 60 lb dog for more than a few minutes. Finally I decided to just lay Lily down on the ground and have the construction worker watch her while I ran to put Layla in my apartment and grab my purse and car to go pick Lily up. I loaded her into the car and just as I was leaving the parking lot my friend Owen who I called after my mom to help me arrived. We rushed her to the vet's office next door to my apartment complex, but they said it would be another 10 minutes before a vet would arrive and recommended that we go to the Urgent Care Vet Clinic which was about a 5 minute drive. We did that and along the way Lily was still breathing, but obviously not herself.
We pulled into the Urgent Care and parked and Owen rushed inside to get a vet tech to come help. By the time I opened up the back of my car, my sweet Lily girl had already passed away. I just couldn't believe that she went from happy and healthy to dead in less than 20 minutes. The vet techs at the Urgent Care center were so sweet and carried her into the clinic and checked all of her body for anything abnormal. They found nothing and said that from the blueish tint in her gums, her death was most likely cardiovascular related, like heart disease or a heart attack. They said that those type of illness aren't something that show outward symptoms in any way and that since vets don't often run EKGs on dogs, the owner's never know there is any problem until something like this happens. I was in shock and absolutely devastated.
My Lily girl was only 6 years and 6 months old, always happy, healthy, and active. I got her for Christmas my Junior year of high school when I was only 16 and she was the best companion in the world. Just simply an angel from up above. She had quite possibly the best week of her entire life the week before her death while I was camping near Telluride with my family. We had four golden retrievers in all; Lily, Layla, Bella (my brother's golden and Layla's littermate), and Rose (my aunt's 6 year old golden). The girls hiked 7 miles a day with us through nothing but gorgeous mountain trails and ran free in the meadow near where we camp for at least a half an hour a day, swimming in creeks and ponds to cool off occasionally. Lily even had her first camping a tent experience on the trip as well, since I had done gardening/house cleaning/grocery shopping for my mom in exchange for a nice 3 person 3 season backpacking tent right before the trip. She was absolutely in dog heaven being part of the pack of goldens. She lived life to the fullest and died as most of us would want to go, happy, healthy, and then have a quick and relatively pain-free death.
The only way I can make sense of it is that she lived twice as much life in her 6 years and most dogs. She was constantly playing with her red ball, chewing on bones and rarely did she rest for more than a few hours during the daytime. She lived in fast-forward everyday of her life. She was the happiest dog in the world and could bring a smile to nearly everyone's face. I guess this was the universe saying that the next chapter in my life was meant to be without her though. Her high activity level was stressful in some ways and she always lived life on her own terms, which can be difficult for a dog/owner relationship. I'm pretty sure she came when I called her less than a dozen times in her life, because she simply didn't want to. She was a sweetheart in so many ways that it was easy to overlook her independent nature for me. Layla, her little sister (not genetically thankfully) fed off of her naughtiness in some ways, which made have two dogs for one girl difficult at times. They were the best of friends and being an older sister was a wonderful thing for Lily, since it did mellow her out substantially and helped relieve some of her anxiety. They had just over two years together and loved each other so much.
It will be a big change for both Layla and I to not have Lily in our lives. I think that Layla will prove to be an amazing and loyal companion without Lily in her life thought. When we got Lily, a friend said "Getting a golden retriever is like getting a another rug on the floor". When Lily was a wild and crazy puppy, everyone told us that by two they mellow out completely. That certainly never happened with Lily, she had more energy at six years old than most dogs do at two. Since Lily's passing, Layla has become a complete rug on the floor and an absolute angel. She hangs out outside with me without a leash (which never happened when her and Lily were together). She already decided to come whenever I call her (again, never happened when Lily was present). She has always followed me around the house and slept at my feet, so I believe that with some training, Layla will be an obedient companion in no time at all.
I decided to shift the plan for my trip slightly after all of this change in my life. Last Tuesday when this all happened, I decided to pack up my things for the trip and start by heading home to Durango for a few days. I just couldn't make myself separate from Layla the day that Lily died and I certainly couldn't imagine driving two nine hour days alone to get to Houston either. Since I got Lily while I was in high school, she was a huge part of my parents life as well. I knew that I wanted to be with them while we all grieved our loss. It was so comforting to be home and with family during a difficult time like this. My aunts decided that I needed a "Lily Garden" at my parents house to commemorate my beautiful companion. The day after I got home, they brought gorgeous plants and we built a huge garden in her honor. It felt so therapeutic to be out gardening, another one of my passions, and be surrounded by those who love me, my family, and Lily. Here are some images of our "Lily Garden", which we will continue to add to over the years. We are hoping to add a bench and a few more flowers by the end of this summer. It will be a nice way to always remember our sweet girl and all the the joy she brought to our lives.
