My heart and thoughts go for Mr. Joey....

We did some rearrangement of the apartment today. Exchanged the loveseat with a bigger sofa. As we did all those cleaning and organizing, all those really remind us of our precious 'lil man, Joey... He used to hide underneath the loveseat everytime we chased him or everytime we vacuumed the apartment. That's just his hiding place.. He also used that to play PEEK-A-BOO with us... Often times, he sat with me and just kept me a company... It's so sad to see him go..


About seven months ago, we were faced with a very tough decision. Joey was diagnosed with a portosystemic shunt disease. As foreign as it sounds to all of you, it did to us too. I couldn't believe that my own precious baby was diagnozed with a disease that killed. Options were laid out on the table for the three of us. First, is to put him on a surgery. If we had decided to do that, the nearest towns we could go were Stillwater, OK or Manhattan, KS. Although it costed a lot, the vet did say, she would not guarantee that he could survive because he's just to young to expereince that surgery. Bottom line, he could go away at that very moment. Second option was simply not doing anything with it. The vet said he probably could survive for another 5 years. But, it also didnt close the probability that we could lose him before that 5 years.

I did lots and lots of research and crying knowing that any treatment option could be wrong for him. Prayed for him. And tried to take care of him the best I could. I wanted so much to know what decision was best for him. Today, I really wish that I was given that choices again. It didn't mean I would know the answer to my choice today or choose the complete opposite option to what we decided. But, simply knowing that Joey would still be here with us...



Joey was our first dog that we really took care... But I know that as a very little pug who was only five months old, Joey fought bravely to live.. I also believe that Joey had been through so much and was just too exhausted to keep fighting... Joey passed away about six months ago (June 27, 2005), one month after he was diagnosed with the disease...

Four months being with Joey was definetely too short for me... But in that four months, Joey brought lotsa joy, love, laughters and of course beautiful memories to the three of us... Even all of his funny actions are still vivid in my mind...



"I wish I could go through all that frustration and worrying again.
Because it would mean you were still here.
Mommy misses you, Joey."