JDMopar said

It's taken me a week to be able to post this and still be able to see how to do it. I knew the day was coming, but you never can fully prepare yourself to lose a pet. Especially one who has been by your side for 16 years. Last week, on the 21st, my little Shi Tzu went to the Rainbow Bridge to wait on me. She was 17 years and 12 days old. We got her when she was a year old from a nice young lady who had to give her up because of a life situation. I promised her we would take good care of her and give her a good home. In the kindest way she could muster, she told me to please be patient with her because she doesn't seem to like men. When we got home and gave her a bath, we let her sleep with us on the bed like we did our other little dog. It was that very first night that she took up with me, and we were down like 4 flat tires for the next 16 years. Lots of good times! She was the most stubborn little dog we ever had....to everyone but me! If she got in trouble and my wife yelled at her, she would run around behind me and look at my wife with that "Yeah! Now whatcha gonna do?" look on her face and make my wife even madder...lol. She was always very healthy, but when she was around 14 she started losing her hearing, but adjusted pretty well. Then she started getting cataracts, and our vet said she was too old to get the surgery. She managed that as well as she did the hearing loss and soldiered on. Last year, she started getting Vertigo pretty bad and we had to give her medicine to keep it at bay. The vet said she was also getting cognitive disorder and that there was no treatment for that. He told us the signs and milestones of that to watch for, so we would know when it was time to make the decision to let her go, with the last ones being she wouldn't want to eat as often and not be able to sleep well. Being an older dog, she slept a lot so that was the main one we watched for. She turned 17 on the 9th of this month, while we were at our camper at the beach a few weeks ago. 10 days later, she got to where she couldn't rest, barely ate and was just generally agitated. She had a good life and was a wonderful little dog. We've had 4 Shi Tzu's in the last 25 years and she was the last dog standing. I feel guilty for picking favorites when they all have been great, but she was my favorite dog ever and the best little furry friend I've ever had. I'll go to my grave missing her, but I know that right after the last breath I ever take, the next thing I see will be her standing there at The Rainbow Bridge with that little tail wagging. R.I.P. Prissy. Life won't be the same without you, but I will see you again!

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