Pixie was a shih tzu. She was 6 pounds of pure meanness, and had a tendency to bite anyone that came too close to her face. That even counted for us on occasion, but we loved her anyway.

In February of this year she had several tumors come up on her stomach. Still showing a spirit for life, my parents decided to have an operation performed on her to remove them. Although it was hard on her the first week, she bounced back from it with a vitality she hasn't had in 5 or more years. The vet said there appeared to be something going on with her kidneys, but it didn't seem to be affecting her at the time. She remained active and bouncy up until several weeks ago when she started slowing down and getting confused on occasion.

Then yesterday around 2:00 pm she began moaning and being sick to her stomach for most of the day. Around 8:00 pm she began falling over and was unable to walk more than a few steps. My mom was worried and called me asking my advice and asked me to come over. When I arrived she was having seizures. We called the vet at home and asked her to met her at her office. It was pouring down rain, so we wrapped her up in her blanket and carried her out there.

When the vet saw her she said Pixie was showing all the signs of kidney failure, and offered to give her an I.V. and run some tests. Seeing how she was barely breathing and not moving much I made the call to go ahead and end her suffering. During the first shot she resisted a little then relaxed, but after a couple of minutes she still hadn't passed so the vet gave her a second dose. The vet said that normally 1 cc was enough to bring down a large dog, but I guess Pixie's mean streak required twice that to fully dissipate.

I'm sorry for rambling on about it, but it helps to put pen to paper (so to speak) about this. Thanks to everyone for listening and thanks for the warm wishes. It's just going to take some time to get over this lump in my throat and get this weight off my chest. Thanks again for listening.