Sandee Cricket was a beautiful girl. She was a tough little cookie. Knew her mind. But that was the schnauzer in her for sure. She was also so very loving, smart, devoted.
 
Her illness came suddenly. I noticed an increase in the rate of her breathing and brought her to our vet quickly. Chest xrays showed shadows in one lung and an area near her heart so we decided a second opinion would be good.
 
She and I drove up to a nearby specialty facility for animals and she was examined. Sadly it was as thought at our vet's. She had lung cancer. I was heartbroken. At the most the estimate was 3 months, but I guess I hoped that like with Maggie, aggressive care could keep her comfortable for longer and we would have her longer.  The hope had been the peroxicam she was prescribed would slow the tumor growth somewhat and keep her comfortable.
 
But as I said, she knew her mind, and things progressed too quickly. She left us, with our vet's gentle help, in only 6 weeks.  

 

Freuda, Heidi, Sandee Cricket, Maggie May,
Heidi G, Mia, Heidi W
 
At the Bridge:
Mia, adopted at 6 years of age (07/1994 - 3/21/2008) 
AIHA & oral cancer
SandeeCricket (02/17/1994-07/2007 adopted at 6 years of age)
lung cancer met to the brain
MaggieMay (05/27/1994-09/28/2006 adopted at 6 years of age)
glomerulonephritis
HeidiW (adopted at 12 years of age -05/2005)
liver tumor
HeidiG ( adopted at 12 years of age-03/2003)
mast cell cancer in the neck region
Heidi (07/26/1986-01/05/2000 our 1st puppy)
sick sinus syndrome/pacemaker, cushings, RMSF, meningioma
Freuda (1980-06/1995 adopted at 4 years of age)
heart disease
  

 Elliott, our 2nd puppy (8/11/2006 - )
 
How we came to get Ellie - We have some wonderful vets at our animal hospital and thanks to a couple of them, being able to talk with them, I realized it wasn't wrong for us to get a puppy this time.  We still had Sandee and Mia at that time.  I really think that some of their behaviours got imprinted, if you will, in Elliott. It's just too coincidental for his to have a few of these. 
 
We have now lost 3 of our dear dogs in 2 years, and 5 in total the last 5 years.

The sadness was really accumulating in me.  I still long to give a home to some more older minis, as we have previously done, and I am sure we will. The right ones will find us. We are here.

Our vets introduced us to Ellie's breeders and they really had done a wonderful job with him and his siblings. We did not bring him home until he was about 3 1/2 months old. There was a demonstrable difference in Ellie versus when we (totally uneducated dog owners) picked up our first Heidi, only 7 weeks.





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