The oldest and best dog I ever had was a Dachshund/Golden Retriever mix, Shorty was short with a long body but had the retriever look and temperament. Such a smart dog. He was three months old when I answered an ad in the paper of a dog being given a way, when I arrived he was excited and ran over to play but he would mouth you alot, well first place he bit me (not hard) was my boob....OMG how embarrassing, anyway, he was a mess, I knew right off the bat that he had that disease that makes them lose their hair in patches and it's contagious among dogs. Anyway, the lady said it was from the older dogs beating up on him, so I took him home for the kids, bathed him in a special shampoo for dogs and one of the first things that made me realize how smart he was was when he brought a stick into the house and I was in a bad mood, I looked at him and yelled at him to get that stick outside right now. lol he picks up the stick, pushes the screen door open, drops it at the bottom of the steps then sits and looks up at me. WOW, was I surprised!.
Shorty lived until the age of 14 when it seems like overnight he became deaf and blind all at the same time. He wouldn't eat, or drink, stayed close to the wall, and was losing a lot of weight so I had to take him down and have him put to sleep and yes I was right there with him petting him the whole time.
Unfortunately that same day that I had to put my favorite dog down, later in the evening, my husband committed suicide through overdose of RX pain meds and muscle relaxers, put him into a coma for three weeks until I finally had it in me to take him off life support. Yeah, that's a day I certainly won't forget and that was March 3, 2008.
