Tiger Lily, Lovely and Loving

A unique name for a unique girl!

Tiger Lily is a 3-year-old Australian Cattle Dog/Australian Shepherd girl that comes to us from Athens Dog Pound in Athens, AL, thanks to the help of Dale Parrent, Deb and Tom Gaylord, and numerous other shelter volunteers and supporters. Tiger Lily’s owner was unable to keep her and surrendered her to animal services, along with four other dogs that are now in foster care with TDL: Jacqueline, Shepherd’s Pie, Footloose, and Fancy Free. We don’t know why Tiger Lily and her pals were given up, but it’s obvious they were cared for as they are in good weight, well-adjusted, and heartworm negative.

Of the three dogs we pulled on this rescue run, I think the extended time at the shelter affected Tiger Lily the most. For the first two days, she seemed to be in shock and pretty much shut down (only picking at her food, panicking when I got out of her sight, waiting by the back door for me to let her in, ignoring the other dogs when they played). I decided to wait another day or two before I made any judgements as to her personality; this behavior isn’t unusual in dogs coming from a shelter environment and cattle dogs can be more intense than many other breeds.

Boy, am I glad I waited to write this foster diary — this morning Tiger Lily found her puppy joy again! She ran and played and roughhoused with the other dogs for over an hour. They were moving so fast, try as I might I couldn’t even catch them on film. I’ve never seen so many play bows at one time. Oh, happy day — I just love watching a timid dog break out of her shell!

Tiger Lily is leash, crate, and housetrained, and enjoys riding in the car. Obviously, she gets along well with other dogs (I have six at my home right now, four fosters plus my own two dogs). She is loving and attentive, very focused on her person/people, which is what you’d expect from a cattle dog. A good size, she weighs in at 38 lbs.

You can view additional photos on her Facebook photo album. If you think you may be interested in adopting Tiger Lily, please review our adoption process and e-mail me at gisele.thedogliberator@gmail.com.

Dec. 4, 2011 Foster Update: Any trace of shyness that was left in Tiger Lily is completely gone now! She’s quite the friendly little attention hound now. She’s the first to greet strangers and demands that they pay attention to her. Doesn’t matter if you want to scratch her ears or rub her belly, you just better be ready to do some lovin’ on this dog.

The Cattle Dog is really starting to come out in her, too; when the pack is running and playing, Tiger Lily’s running and playing … and trying to heel them all! It’s quite comical to watch, really. I keep trying to get it on video, but these dogs move too fast for my camera!

Here’s a holiday video I did today with all of my fosters, including Tiger Lily. Check it out!

Dec. 8, 2011 Foster Update: For some reason, I had a difficult time choosing a song for Tiger Lily’s video. I couldn’t make a decision between this song and one other tune. Well, Tiger Lily chose for me: I was replaying this song for the umpteenth time when she threw her head back and howled. I took it as a sign of approval! Enjoy!