Last Saturday morning at about 2am our beloved Yorkie came to us struggling to breathe. He had a congenital defect in his trachea, so breathing problems were not new to him but this time was different. The look in his eyes was fear. He knew something was terribly wrong.
We rushed him to the Emergency Vet who put him immediately in oxygen but it was too late. He died about an hour later. The vet said “congestive heart failure” but he was a healthy, active 14-year-old dog. We’re guessing he may have aspirated some vomit into his lungs.
He was 6.5 lbs of pure joy in our household. Now I know I’m a little biased, but he truly was the best dog in the world for us. He wasn’t yappy and he was a smart, cute, loving, beautiful soul. He was completely and totally devoted to Hub. They were the two sole members of their own mutual admiration society.
Now he wasn’t perfect. My friends will all laugh when they read that because in our eyes, even his faults were adorable. We adopted him when he was a year old. His previous owners were both legally blind and they thought that he was potty trained. Little did they know. As he got older, his potty habits got worse but the look of adoration in his eyes for his people melted our hearts and got out the Spic & Span.
We miss you baby Brownie. We miss your loving face when we walk in the door. We miss your morning ritual of getting a puppy treat. We miss puppy kisses. We miss the patter of your little dog feet on the kitchen floor.
Then, Tuesday morning I get a call that a colleague and friend of mine had died unexpectedly from a sudden massive heart attack. He was only 61 years old and looking forward to retirement.
I had known and respected Jim for almost 30 years of my career. His death is a huge loss to me. He was a good friend and a mentor and will be dearly missed.
