Boo
May 8, 2003 – Jan 8, 2014
“… Boo will always love ya “THIS MUCH” … “
when i see the sun light, i will be thinking of the light in your beautiful little eyes…
when i see the grass, i will follow your every step and remember what an amazing gift you always were and are to me
when night falls, i will warmly remember you following my every step, when in fact you were the leader
when i cry, i will remember all the happy times and how very much you gave of your own little life to make my own worth living…
when i sleep, i hope there will be dreams filled with love and joy for each and every day that we had together…
you truly gave your life for me and i hope you won’t hate me for having to take yours as what i did, i truly did in love and my baby girl, i hope and pray that some day, i will see you again……you will forever be a part of me…
Boo came into my life in July of 2003…she had been born on the 8th day of May…prior to that, her older sister was born on the 8th…although bitsy was truly loved as well, you took it upon yourself to become my little “heart dog”…everyone who met you would fall in love with you unless it was someone you felt you distrusted for whatever reason and would not want them to come anywhere near me…wherever i walked, you walked in my footsteps…i never told you that in truth, i was just following your lead..i’m sure you knew that though….
we had many long happy years together before the bad times in November of 2011 and then for whatever reason, you suddenly became ill whereas before, you were a tower of strength and you were taking a downwards spiral that i was so afraid would surely take your little life, but thru it all, that unwavering glean in your little eyes was never lost…for almost 6 weeks, i watched you fight a battle for which we knew no cause and the vet here still did not have a clue what was taking you down…so, i did the only thing i knew to do and that was to try to find a reason myself…i combed the internet endlessly trying to find an answer, anything to help me understand what was taking you from me ounce by ounce and in a tiny little dog, those ounces mattered beyond belief…you went from a robust 4 lb. baby to 2.3lbs… you truly were just skin and bones..i took pictures of you in your bed where you were still trying to cut up with me and show me that you were not giving up, but i knew time was not on our side.. finally, on a Friday nite, i touched on a website that discussed malabsorption syndrome in dogs and then epi was mentioned…so, i went on to study anything that i could about epi…i had a friend that one of her dogs actually had epi and she had met Susan (buttersmom) thru another epi group as well as the epi4dogs website…it was there that Boo and i found a home and people that genuinely cared and would do anything they could to help get us through it…because of my extreme distrust with the vet here, i then called the vet clinic in Coleman, Texas and was put on the phone with Dr. Needham who would come to help me save your little life…it didn’t anger him like it did the vet here that i so much as dared to find my own answers and the rest is history… with your confirmed dx, we then set out to do what it would take to hopefully help you regroup and you did that in amazing speed, actually…Dr. Needham thought at best i might be able to get you back to 3 lbs. but no, you had to prove him wrong and after about 2 months, you were back to 3.6 lbs. and for the longest time, continued to stay at that weight.. there is nothing like having a little 3.6 lb. Chihuahua with an “in your face” attitude to help prove you wrong….you were determined to prove every one wrong…you just had this undeniable attitude that “this was all about boo” and yes, you kept that same attitude for the longest… you were my towering strength through all my own health issues…i often thought you maybe liked seeing me less than 100% as then it would mean more time spent with you…you were already my little shadow and then tried to become my skin…i had never, ever loved any one critter as much as i loved you and am sure, i will never have those same feelings again…so many times in my depression, you would be there to lift me up and that precious personality shown thru each and every one of your pictures that i would take…
your half-sister had to leave us in July of 2012 due to congestive heart failure and my best friend Bettye drove you and i in her van to Dr. Needham’s so bitsy would not have to leave this world alone and she didn’t want me to be alone doing that…Bettye was one of the people in this world that you loved the most and then we lost her in November of 2012 to stage 4 colon cancer…she had always told me that if she ever had to leave, i would have you there to take care of me…i had only lost my sister the February before that, so it was Mari, Bitsy and then Bettye that i lost all within a 9 month period…still, you were there for me helping me thru some of the hardest losses i had ever had to go through…what a pillar of strength you had been for me and what a heavy weight to have to carry on those tiny shoulders…
perhaps a year ago, you had started having more problems with the epi but once again, we would still be able to get you thru them…i know you hated me when i would have to syringe your water or enzymes to you, but the next day you would be wagging your tail for me and giving me puppy kisses to thank me….Susan had started sending you b12 tablets some time back when she would need to reorder them for butter…and yes, for a time, those helped as well.. then about a year ago, you had started to develop a partially collapsed trachea and we were once again on the road to Dr. Needham’s… you didn’t want him messing with you that day, so you decided you weren’t going to “show” him what you had been doing and i know he must have thought i was nuts…we get back in the car to come home and each day that would pass, the cough and hacking would get worse…. we tried cough meds, allergy meds, just anything that might help you breathe a little easier.. you were always such a tough little girl….whatever got thrown your way, you would fight it!!!!!!! then perhaps 2 1/2 months ago, i noticed an unusual looking place that seemed to have come up over- night on your back left flank…i hoped and prayed it was nothing more than grossly enlarged anal sac and was not even willing to “go there” thinking it could be anything worse…. you had already shown your determination thru so many other things.. so, once again, we were back on the road to Dr. Needham’s….as it turned out, it was a very large perineal hernia and yes, they can sometimes happen in older dogs…you were the bravest little girl while he checked out everything on you….you were far braver than i could ever be…we briefly discussed perhaps doing corrective surgery on you, but at 3.4 lbs., that just was not something your little system was going to be able to handle.. over the next few weeks, things seem to run hot then cold and then about 11 days ago, you decided to quit eating altogether…still, i would syringe you your water and enzymes to try to keep your strength up…i could only hope that you didn’t hate me altogether…last weekend, i had to finally admit to myself that you were trying so hard to tell me how very tired you were and that i needed to find it in my heart to let you go… your little bladder had become entangled in the hernia and Dr. Needham had already told me that once that happened, it would not be something you could recover from…i made arrangements to take you over to his office on the 8th and my brother went with me as that was clearly something i would not have been able to do myself… the day before, i guess you wanted to give us one last thing to remember you by and in all the years my brother had known and loved you, you would never go lay beside him as you did for a few minutes that day… i guess you wanted us to remember the happier better times… you then came to me for the last time wanting me to pick you up which i did, but your restlessness would not allow you to sleep…i put you back on your blanket and there you stayed.. the next morning, i took you to the one place where i knew i could finally give you the peace and rest that you so deserved…your little eyes would not meet my own because i think you knew how much that would hurt me…even till the end, it was me you were thinking about..i’ll never forget that precious face, how you loved me so very much, how you gave me something to live for when things had gone so badly wrong in my own life…if ever there was a little dog that gave someone they loved life, it was surely you Boo…i will love and remember you always….. mom
i want you all to remember this one very important thing….as horrible as epi can be, most times it is not epi that takes our babies from us…it truly can be managed and there is no better place for moral support for both you and your dogs(and cats) than this web site…Olesia has dedicated her life to her little dog Izzy and this very important cause…always believe in yourself and the knowledgeable members of this group to help you through your journey….i sometimes think without Susan, i would have lost it altogether… we all share a common cause…never under estimate the power of love and the sheer determination in your babies to help get themselves through this maze… as tiny as my Boo was, she was an amazing fighter..i have never had a better gift in my whole entire life as i had with Boo and i thank you all for traveling this road with me…thank you… Lynda