LILY ANN HASKELL

Lily & Lady Di                                                                  Lily & Hank and HCHaskell

​Lilly Ann Haskell
2007 – 2016
         Lily Ann Haskell is gone. Two week ago she was running around our front yard in Maine with her buddy, Lady Diane. Pat noticed Lily was a little less lively but we didn’t really give it much thought. Now Lily has succumbed to liver cancer. Her death happened so fast that we are all still in shock.
         Lily was a special dog. I loved her in the special way men love their dogs. She slept up against my head from the very first day she joined us on January 19, 2008. She was feisty at times and we hated the way she growled and snapped at our grandchildren. We knew that was not because she didn’t like them, but because she liked me the best—and didn’t want to share me with anyone else, except Pat and Dora, but I was definitely #1 with Lily.
Our daughter, Margo, warned us against getting a Jack Russell, ”They require a lot of exercise and can be aggressive at time.” We located a breeder named Trinity Farms in Aiken, South Carolina and one rainy day on January 19, 2008, we (Pat, Margo, Corie and I) drove to take a look.
This kennel was located in a house with the breeder so fussy she insisted on our wearing white coats with plastic on our shoes. We walked into a room full of dogs and immediately noticed two Irish Jack Russell’s.
Pat and I checked the Jacks out and we were both taken in by one adorable little doggie—a daughter of another Lily. She’d been born in November 2007 with all the necessary papers proving she was a purebred Irish Jack Russell. We were somewhat hesitant but when we read about and heard she was “an Irish Jack Russell, we felt better. After all, “Irish Jack Russell’s are gentler and smaller compared with regular Jacks. “ As the Trinity Farms web site says, “Dogs (Jack Russells) are truly treasures from old world lines.”
 
A little smile, a world of cheer,
A bit of love from someone near
A little gift from one held dear.
                                    IRISH BLESSING
 
We brought Lily home. We’d had three Schnauzers (Baba, Cessie and Winnie) for almost 18 years and now we had another dog.
Lily was a winner! Oh yes, she took awhile to potty train. She ran away that first year in Maine and she was hyper at times. After tearing around our yard, she would settled down and nuzzle up to Pat and me. She loved body warmth and us and we loved her.
We signed Lily up for obedience lessons (two times) but she exhibited no signs of paying much attention to those lessons. Although we usually walked Lily with a leash, she would walk with me by herself with no problem (unlike her buddy, Lady Di, who’d run away at any opportunity).
I took Lily to our theatre and carried her with me as I introduced our shows. Our SCRC audience loved her. Lily had a face that no one could resist; even Dora, who learned the hard way not to get too close to Lily’s face. Lily bit Dora one night in Maine and Pat had to take Dora to Miles Hospital with a few stitches. Dora still loved Lily and understood her better after that incident.
I flunked out attempting to make a Boat-dog out of Lily as she was just too scared of the motor noise. She was always sensitive to loud noises and barked at strangers. Pat decided Lily needed a playmate and we added Lady Diane to our family. The fought at first (oh wow, did they fight) but eventually became close friends and slept together on my bed with no problems, except one night this summer when my Twin Sister, Mercy and Bats visited us. Lily and Lady started scrapping in the middle of the night, and I threw my back out separating them.
 
We will never forget Lily, who left us far too soon. She joins the five Haskell family dogs who have crossed the bar recently—Maddie, Murray, Paco, SCipper, and now Lily—all in doggie-heaven. Our lives are all so much better with each of these wonderful animals having been in our families.