Sweet little Dorothy Faye (she often goes by Dottie) landed in the shelter seemingly blind and deaf with terrible teeth, bladder stones, mammary nodules, a heart mummer and cute as a button.  In the shelter she had the mammary nodules biopsied and thankfully they were benign. By the time she arrived at her ODH foster home she also had a bladder infection.

When we pieced together her history, we learned she has had at least 3 shelter stays and at least as many homes.  That’s a lot of moving around.  But now she is in her forever home.

She is a Shih Tzu mix, about 10 – 12 years old and weighs a scant 12 pounds.

Thanks to Old Dog Haven, first up was a trip to ​the eye specialists.  While she has lost some of her vision, she does not have glaucoma (yay).  Next up was her intake exam at​a veterinary hospital, followed by an echo cardiogram and surgery to remove the bladder stones. There were at least 4 huge stones and countless tiny ones.  She will be on a special diet to keep them from coming back. While she was under anesthesia, they performed a dental and pulled 6 of her remaining 8 teeth.  At the same time they had to dig out the root remnants of at least 12 more teeth.

Now ​Dottie is starting to settle into her new home.  She’s a sweetheart and I hope she’s here for a long time. Now she doesn’t have enough teeth to keep her tongue in her mouth​, but that makes her even more adorable​

Oh and along the way she had time for a trip to our favorite groomer​!  ​

Update:

Dorothy Faye aka Dottie, aka Dot, aka Dit Dot, aka Ditty Dot…Such a fun name to play with!

What can I say about Miss Dot? In many ways she was a pretty ordinary dog. Not a snuggler, not well trained, blind, nearly deaf, only mostly house trained. But there was a certain sweetness, a calmness about her that made her a very special dog indeed.

She was a quiet member of our household, usually found snoozing in front of the fireplace. Until she thought it might be dinnertime. Then she would plant her little feet, throw back her head and bark like crazy. Sometimes she would bark so hard she would come up off the ground.

Last week her heart failed her and her lungs started filling with fluid.  We tried for several hours to help her, nothing would help, except helping her go.  So, she passed in my arms.

Her quiet presence is so very much missed

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