[dgc2861]

I got Shaina two years after I bought my house. She was fast asleep in a pet store the first time I saw her and I fell in love. We had a couple of dogs in my family growing up, but I never owned a pet as an adult. She is a sweet Shih tuz/Chihuahua mix who is 13 now and is 5 lbs of personality. She knows so many words and sometimes I can just look at her and know what she is thinking.

She has been the healthiest dog all her life, never going to the vet except for annual check ups and shots. The night I came home from a cruise to celebrate my 50th birthday in February, she greeted me at the door panting and crying, she couldn't catch her breath and I knew something was wrong. The next day the vet told me she was in Congestive Heart Failure. She is on medicine and has slowed down and sleeps most of the day, but is still her same sweet self. She has about a year left and in a way I'm glad I know-I can pamper her and make her last year the best year of her life....I certainly will miss her - she is my heart and my "forever" dog.

Sue (and Shaina) in Pittsburgh (but dreaming of TV)