Lily the labrador is the definition of a miracle.
Three-legged yet full of energy, Lily wasn’t always without a limb.
She started her life off with the Roycrofts as an early Christmas present for Felicity and Shane’s two boys, Ollie and Nate.
“We hid Lily in the bathroom on Christmas Eve, and the next morning, we gave the boys dog toys for Christmas,” Felicity said.
“They were like, ‘Mum, what do we do with this?’ and I said, ‘well, you can play with it, you can kick it, and I was like, what would be cooler than having a dog toy?” Felicity said.
“And then I brought out Lily, and their faces just dropped, they loved it.”
However, only three months later, disaster struck, and at 80km/h, Lily was hit by a car, leaving the Roycrofts with limited options.
“I said to the boys there were two options,” Felicity said.
“It was either fix her or say goodbye, and the boys said we’d rather have a dog with three legs than no dog.
“So now we’ve got a dog with three legs, but she runs around like a dog with four.”
Now with vibrant puppy-like energy, Lily has no problem getting around — she enjoys a good game of tug-of-war and chasing her thoroughly chewed but most-loved tennis ball.
“She can still dig even with one leg like she’ll still dig a hole in the backyard,” Felicity said.
“She’s turned into a bit of an old soul, like she’ll go to bed early and laze around.
“But she’ll still see someone new, and she’s all over you.”
Felicity said Lily was the perfect addition to their family, stating that their main motivation for getting Lily was to help their boys get over the fear of dogs.
“My boys were scared of dogs like we would almost cross the road when a dog would walk past us,” she said.
“Shane grew up on a farm and I always grew up with pets and I said Shane, I can’t have a kid that’s going to grow up scared of animals.
“So we thought we’d get her and she is just the perfect dog.
“Ollie and Nate just love her.
“They will lay on her, and they’ll try and ride her, and I say you can’t do that she’s not a horse!”
Not only a friend to the family, Lily also became part of the family for Shane and Felicity’s business, Aerodrome Automotive.
Bouncing around the workshop, Lily takes pride in being everyone’s friend — even the customers love her.
“She gets so much love and affection from all our customers,” Felicity said.
“She’s just like our little mascot, and we race speedway and even at the speedway, she’s the same, people love her.”
“She’ll get her lead and pick it up and take it to the customers and they go, I could take her for a walk,” Felicity said.