Vanessa, is 'waiting at the gate'.

Gregg holding Vanessa, she was also known as the 'Twirpy'

My life seems endlessly busy, but I need to take a bit of time to say a proper farewell to a loyal furry friend. Our tiny toy Fox Terrier, Vanessa, passed recently. Evidently she had been sick for a few months but we just thought she was starting to show her age (she was 11), and did not fully realize what was happening. She wound up having a severe case of bladder stones. We scheduled surgery for her to have them removed, but the strain of dealing with her condition got the better of her before that. I hope she will forgive us for not realizing how sick she really was. Be at peace now little Vanessa, you are no longer in pain. Now she is 'waiting at the gate' ( a reference to a story I recently posted on this blog; scroll down to read it). There's nothing like a soft fur-ball to help make your day brighter. Our four-footed friends still love us even when we have bad breath and morning hair, and they remind us life isn't that bad after all!

Vanessa and Heidi sharing a bed

Even though I always adopted our pets, I found little Vanessa in a pet shop, she is the first pet shop doggie I ever purchased. It's a bit of a complicated story, but we had formerly had a very tiny chihuahua that we adopted who had been horribly abused, and you could say I was sensitized to animal abuse because of her. We helped her learn to trust people again and had a wonderful love-filled five years with her as she was quite old when we adopted her. I am also a spiritual person so I believe in premonitions, hunches, etc. As I gazed at the dogs in their pet shop cages, I had no intention of buying one, I was just there to pick up some bird seed. I had this overwhelming sense of foreboding envelope me and I could almost hear the words...this dog is going to be abused...I knew I needed to buy her to save her from that fate. That might sound hokey to some, but that is what I felt. I also thought she was a rat terrier and did not even realize there was a breed called 'Toy Fox Terrier', at the time of purchase.

Well, needless to say, Hubby was not all that pleased with me bringing home a puppy out of the blue, but kind man that he is, he knows I am incurable when it comes to tiny furry things and he accepted her into our family anyway.

We'd never had that type of dog before, so her already docked tail was a novelty to us. She was a very intelligent dog and learned a few tricks, kept us all company and was always friendly to everyone that came to our home. She had a good disposition and she was a 4.5 pound cutie on little skinny stilt legs, with a big black terrier spot right on her butt!

Vanessa, aka- Twirpy

Oh! She loved her food, and we had to carefully monitor her diet or else she would balloon into a little pork roll on skinny legs. We even put her on the 'green bean' diet once to help her drop some weight. She ate anything and everything, especially if it happened to fall on the kitchen floor. Like the fastest lightning, she was instantly there licking it up.Vanessa was the first dog I ever saw that liked eating cantaloupe! She responded joyously to any and all sorts of belly rubs and scratches and when her little leg would spaz out- you knew she was really enjoying the rub down.

Goodbye, little Vanessa, we'll meet again when my time comes...ooxx.., Your Human Family.

Warning signs for bladder stones in pets:

Unexplained incontinence

Abdomen feels stiff

Blood in urine

Pet generally acting different or subdued

Female dogs can be more suseptible to them

Sign of bladder stones are also similar to those of kidney disease, which requires immediate life-saving medical attention, consult your vet whenever your pet starts acting differently for no explained reason. (Our Vanessa was all of a sudden unable to hold her urine and we mistook it for just a sign of old age, the stones were the evident cause but we did not realize that until it was nearly too late.)