The much beloved mascot of Lily’s Kitchen – Lily the Border terrier – celebrated reaching the grand old age of 17 this week.
Like many of her human friends on lockdown, Lily marked the occasion virtually with a Zoom birthday party with family and friends on Tuesday. She also enjoyed a birthday cake made from Tasty Treats for Happy Dogs, a recipe book written by Lily’s Kitchen founder Henrietta Morrison.
Henrietta said: “I loved how, on a recent episode of Gardener’s World, Monty Don referred to his third dog as a ‘person’! That’s how I feel about Lily too, as do so many dog parents, and therefore it’s very appropriate that we make a celebration of our dogs’ birthdays!.
“Every year is an important milestone for them, especially given they live for such a short time, relative to us humans. We made her a lovely cake and shared out the slices with the other border terriers in our household (currently four altogether!)
We don’t take Lily’s old age for granted. Last Autumn we weren’t sure if she would make it to her 17th birthday as her legs became extremely wobbly. She has had three cruciate ligament ops and we were told at the time that she would definitely get arthritis and weakness in her joints as she got older.
“Luckily we have a brilliant homeopathic vet – Richard Allport – who prescribed her some tablets. This together with lots of TLC has meant that she has pulled through and now enjoys the occasional walk on the beach and stroll in her pram. Every moment with her now is all the more precious.”
