Loving and Precocious Jolie

My best friend is very sick. My history with my miniature schnauzer goes back a long way - almost 12 years. I was a freshman at A&M - the start of my spring semester. I had just moved into an apartment alone after my dorm mate decided to pursue interests in other places and was in need of a pal. There was a pet store next to the coffee shop I used to frequent and one day I stumbled upon the cutest puppies ever. They were so dignified with their gray beards and white bellies - even their puppy barks were aristocratic.

That was the day that Jolie became my first baby girl. We have had a rocky history to say the least. Jolie can be the sweetest dog - she seems to sense when you are ill or sad and runs immediately to your side. If nothing else, she is perhaps too loving, and very jealous. She wants to be in your lap at all times and does not share attention well at all. We have had our down moments...the make-up experience, the poop mine field, the scratches on our brand-new-still-being-financed kitchen table....but she will always be my first baby.

We used to race through my 5 mile run across Research Park while I was still in college, then through Wolf Pen Creek the year after. It just seems like yesterday that we were running at a local park when we saw a coyote - thankfully she didn't pick a fight with that one.

But today when we tried to go for a walk, something very different happened. Instead of racing ahead and pulling with excitement, Jolie fell limp and lifeless to the sidewalk. For minutes her eyes were rolled back into her head and she didn't seem to be breathing. She has struggled with a cough recently, but I didn't realize it had gotten quite that progressed.

Now I feel horrible to have not caught her heart trouble earlier...each time I pushed her away, angry that she was again under my feet or shushed her for panting almost ceaselessly...she was very very sick and I didn't even notice. It was almost too much to sit and pet her this evening, not wanting her to leave us, but painfully aware of how labored her breathing has become.

We love you Jolie...hope you sleep peacefully this evening...