I had just lost two of my darling dogs within one month. Losing Mickey hit me especially hard because he was only 6; he died from a rare neurological disease (GME) that came on quite suddenly. He was my special boy.
While trying to recover, and help my remaining dog TJ Wiggles with his own grief (he and Mick were inseparable), I received a call from my groomer, who does volunteer work for our regional shelter. She was grooming an elderly Shih Tzu who had been terribly neglected and surrendered to the shelter at age 12. I left work and made a beeline to the groomer.
There she was: 16 pounds of attitude. Her diseased eyes completely covered with cataracts, she could hardly walk due to her matted fur having “glued” her legs to her belly for so long, yet she had this.