Every time I lose one of my babies I write their story so I can put in their box so in case I, or someone else, want to read it I can.
Sorry if this story doesn't make much sense and just rambles. I know I have forgotten things and possibly will add more when I remember but for now here is Little D's story.
Where do I start with Little D and his story. He has lived such a long life with us that I don’t even know if I can remember that far back. 12yrs is a long time for a dog to live, in this house. ;)
I don’t even remember WHY I wanted to get a little dog. We already had a black lab/golden retriever mix female dog. I guess I just made the mistake and went into the Northtown Mall in Blaine, Mn and saw that little dog looking back at me. I told Michael he was just the cutest little dachsund I had ever seen and I WANTED him. Michael resisted, like he always TRIED to do, but I asked the woman to get the little puppy out. She put him in Michael’s arms and Little d just started licking Michael’s face. That was it, he was going home with us. I think he was about 6-8wks old. He was a chihuahua/dachsund cross. He looked more like a dachsund than like a chihuahua. I remember walking him thru the mall and everyone looking at him and how cute he was and smiling at us as we walked thru the mall.
I think before we left the mall we had named him. Michael named him, as he named so many of our animals.
We had a friend living with us and we pulled up to the house and he just shook his head like he couldn’t believe we brought ANOTHER animal into the house. Of course he grew to love Little D just as much as we did.
I remember I had to show my parents and so they came over and mom and dad had ice cream. My dad sat down on the steps and Little d decided he wanted some too but my dad growled at him and scared him. I think that is what started the life long hatred of men. It was funny at the time but that little dog was really scared.
I did EVERYTHING you could do wrong with Little d that anyone could do wrong with a dog. I never took him into public and I never took him to puppy school. Never socialized him at all. He HATED to ride in the car because it just terrified him because every time we went into the car he had to go to the vet, another thing I did wrong! He would shake and shake and drool and everything. It was just really sad.
I remember taking him for his first distemper shot and bringing him home and he had an allergic reaction to it. I was freaking out. I knew NOTHING about dogs at this point. He had a huge knot at the vaccine site. I rushed him back into the vet and from then on he had to have a shot before his shot. LOL. He was always really good when we got there but as soon as we walked in he would defecate and urinate all over.
I remember I was working for a vet clinic at the time he needed to get neutered and so I had him neutered at that vet. He was the BIGGEST cry baby ever! He just whined and screamed the whole night. I couldn’t even take him out of the kennel because he was such a big baby. It was a sad night but by the next day everything was fine.
He went thru so many foster animals and our OWN animals. He had a “wife” named Snickers and we gave her up and then he had gotten another “wife” named Roxy Roo. He watched her go on our living room floor. His best bud, KoKo, he watched leave this world on the living room floor also. All the foster dogs that came and went I’m sure he was thankful that he never had to leave.
Yet, there was this one time that someone had called and said we had too many animals so animal control told us we had to get rid of some of them so I decided that I should let Little D go. Well, I didn’t last long. I was SO depressed and I cried and couldn’t bare to have Little D gone so I called the woman I had given him too and she brought him back to me. As soon as he walked thru the door I bursted into tears! I told him I would NEVER EVER do that to him again, EVER. The thing is I lived up to that promise. I would go on vacation at times and when we moved in May of this year they had to be at the house(that he grew up in) for about a week or two but there was STILL someone there and we were there at night with them. He was freaking out because he didn’t know what was going on and why all the furniture was disappearing but it was ok when he got to come to the new house. He was SO happy to be back with us. I don’t know if the stress of the last month was what made his heart go bad or what. I guess I will never know.
When we had big dogs he would always go into their kennels and curl up and get the kennel to himself! He didn’t let anyone else get in there. It was pretty funny.
He LOVED to go outside in the summer time and take a tan. He would stay out there for hours upon hours. We had a wooden picnic table that he would sit on and be king of the house. Yet once it hit below 70 you would not see him at all. It was just too cold for him.
He would always find the hole in the fence too, if there was one to find. He always kept his daddy on his toes to keep that fence fixed!
Every time Michael and I would say that he was a “crazy dog” he would get all crazy. It was so very cute!
I would whine and cry like a puppy and Little D would howl. I was never able to get that on video and now I’m sorry I didn’t.
Although we never ever really taught him any tricks he knew how to “sit pretty” for his food, crackers, or any food! He could hear a cracker wrapper from a mile away! He was very smart even though we never taught him anything.
He had the BIGGEST ears. We would call him Yoda all the time. It was very hard to a picture of him though because every time he heard the camera open or beep he would run away. LOL.
I remember when we first got him we had some ham and I thought I would let him have it. Well, that little dog bloated like you would not believe. Puking all night and everything. He was SO miserable but we learned our lesson that dogs can NOT have ham or at least as much as he got. Yet, every time we had ham he was right there! I guess he didn’t learn his lesson.
A few years ago my friend called me up and said that she heard what Little D was officially called. He was a chiweenie! We laughed and laughed and laughed so hard about that! We never knew that there was an actually “name” for his breed. I guess I had a designer dog all along!
I remember he would get up right next to us to snuggle under the covers at night. He would sleep so tight up against you that it was hard to move. Yet he was always so warm. I loved when he snuggled with me.
For being a mix, puppymill, petstore dog he never had any health issues! It was amazing and I was always telling people that.
I remember sometimes he would run out the door and all I had to do was say, “Little D come see momma, hurry hurry hurry.” And those little legs would just RUN as fast as they could to come and see me. Sometimes Michael wasn’t able to get him inside and that’s all I had to say and he would turn and run towards me. Michael would just shake his head and couldn’t believe that’s all I had to do.
Michael said today not even 5 minutes before he passed Little D asked to go outside. He said he took him outside and he walked around the fence area, ate some grass(like he always did), and went to a pile of dirt, put his front feet on the dirt mound, put his nose to sky and then looked at Michael. Michael said, “Yep, you’re king of the hill!” I think that Little D was communicating to God at that point and we just didn’t know it. I was taking a nap but I heard Michael take the dogs out. Sasha and Jersey came back to the bed with me and then I heard Little D pacing in the hallway. I thought it was MoMo but then I figured out it was Little D. Then all of a sudden I heard a yelp or yip and I jumped out of bed. Jersey and Sasha at the point were barking and Michael said MoMo was barking and trying to get Michael’s attention. When I jumped up the 2 girls followed me into the hallway. In the hallway right in front of the door was laying Little D. He had deficated and was just laying there not moving. I screamed at Michael and Michael came over and asked what the hell was going on. Then Little D’s breathing got labored. He didn’t drool, didn’t growl, didn’t cry again, didn’t have any blood, no white gums, NOTHING. Just laying there. Not even seizure activity. I just petted him and started crying knowing I was going to lose him. Michael said, “Damn it, D. Dying like my dad did in the hallway by a heartattack!” That was really hard to hear. I told him to just not fight and just to go and that we loved him. Odd thing was that earlier when I had went to take a nap he jumped on the bed and snuggled with me like nothing at all was wrong. It was all so sudden. I guess if I had to choose I would want it more like that than any other way. I wrapped him up and took him outside and as soon as Michael stepped outside to lock the door a hearse drove by.
I called my mom and she said that she knew something was going to happen today because things were so quiet at her house and yet there were some unexplained noises. She also felt nervous. She cried with me. Michael cried too.
We will miss you, Little D, D.D., Little Dog, Little Devil, Little Dachsund, Little Daddy’s dog, Little shit!
