Good night little Beanie-girl...

This evening, around 7:45 - 8:00, John was outside feeding the big dogs, and our little Chili Bean was being awfully quiet. John went over to check on her, and she was not acting quite right and was pretty still, which is so unlike her. I was inside, and I wondered why it was taking so long to feed the dogs, but I just figured that he was having another smoke or two (he loves the cold weather). Then, I heard him shout "OH, CRAP"! I thought, dammit, the dogs are out again. Dewey loves to run, and if he is out, he's gone for awhile... Fang is a good little man, and he comes when called. Anyway, I went out and asked him what was wrong, because Fang always comes to me when I call him, and that's when John told me little Beanie-girl was dead. I told him to bring her inside because maybe she was just chilled and had shallow breathing, but he said no, that he had tried CPR and compressions with her, but she was already gone. There was no heartbeat. I got her a fresh blankie, and I wrapped her all up snuggly and warm, and we placed her little self on a fluffy pillow inside her crate where she will be safe until tomorrow.

Chili was only about two years old. I got her when I brought home a glider rescue (my Reese, my little AnnaBear's momma). The first night we had her home, we noticed that she walked funny, but we had assumed it was because she was sliding on hardwood floors. We never noticed this at her owner's house, but then again, we were there to pick up a sugar glider, and Chili just happened to go home with us (she had needed a home too). We took Beanie to a doctor, and we were told that she had neurological damage and that nothing could be done, and that if that was a problem for us, that he could put her down. That was something that we just could not accept, so we found another doctor, and he agreed... all we could do was to make her as comfortable as possible, or make the decision. Sometime, I think was last summer during the London bombings, is when Chili had her first seizure. I was online with my good friend Leyna at the time, who told me there was a good chance that Chili was having an epileptic seizure. We got her back to our vet, Dr. Tharp, and he checked her out, and Chili was diagnosed with epilepsy. She got up to 2 cc of Phenyl-Barbitol, twice a day, until we could drop the dosage to find the just the right amount that would give her the least amount of medicine - yet still keep her seizures at bay. For a very long time, Chili got by with no seizures at all, then at other times, she'd have them pretty frequently. Loud noises would bring on a seizure. She hated the mowers, lightening, thunder, and vacuum cleaners. She began losing control of her bladder and poo, but we still kept her has comfortable as possible. She was well-loved by everyone who ever met her (and absolutely adored by Dr. Tharp and his staff), and she really was a big dog in a little body. I know that she is in a better place tonight where she is free of pain, but we miss her.

I'll share some of the happy times with our Beanie-girl (her real name was Chili Bean, and that was so appropriate because that was her name to start with, and the night we went to get Reese (and her), we had accidently left a pot of home-made chili simmering on the stove - wow, were we lucky!! That was a three hour long round-trip road-trip to Dayton and back. Beanie loved me from the get-go, and she road home on my lap in her little blankie, and she rode well! No messes, no problems. She was content!

Beanie came to live with us about two years ago, around November 4th, 2004, and one of her favorite past times was to "bark at the big dogs" who were always checking her out because she was so tiny (less than 10 pounds). Chili, as small as she was, was a stocky little thing, and all muscle. Chili "didn't take no crap" from anyone bigger than her. One time, Dewey, our Yellow Lab, who is as gentle as can be, decided he was going to sniff her, and boy, did she get mad at him! She turned, snarled, and bared her teeth, and "cussed him out but good"! Then, she lunged at him and bit him on his lower lip, haha. Beanie-girl scored one on the big dog. From that moment, Dewey gave her her space! Another time, he passed by her too closely, and she jumped up and nipped him on the butt. Now, before you think she was just a mean little thing, she wasn't... she was just letting her true self out. Beanie was 3/4 Jack Russell Terrier and 1/4 Chihuahua (someone should have never allowed her parents to breed. Structurally speaking, her little frame was awkward, and she never did walk quite right, and her little hips were "too fluid"). Though she didn't walk well, that girl sure could run! She could outrun any of our other dogs and was twice as cute!

Chili Bean had a bad seizure over this past weekend, and we thought we were losing her then. She was beside me, all day, on Saturday, as I mentioned below, while I was working on my glider pouches. I talked to her all that day, and I feared that we were going to have to make "the decision" for, surely, we did not want her to be in pain - or worse, to die alone while we were at work. That day, she never moved from her blankie... but the next day, she was stronger and more like her old self, and we were relieved! We could see her getting better each day since last Saturday. When I came home from work the other day, I let her out of her crate (we had to keep her contained to protect her and to limit her little messes), and she jumped out of there and took off like greased lightening! She was running up to the red barn (and I think she had half a mind to tell the big boys off for old time's sake). By the time I caught her, she had progressed from my back porch to the fire-ring... and I picked her up (since she had already lost her sight, and her hearing was going, too, I no longer allowed her the free-roam of the property that she used to have. I tied her out, and she frollicked and rolled in the leaves, and took a nice long nap in the sun. Beanie-girl doing what she loved best.

Tommy Lee, our Min-Pin, went out this evening to see what dad was doing out there, and he checked little Beanie out, and he paid his final respects. Funny, these two, they were so totally different, but they loved sleeping together and they were great buds.

Good night, Beanie-girl... rest well til we meet again.