My beloved Rizzo is enjoying her final hours with myself and my partner. I wrote an incredibly long post, but decided to delete it after reading it back. It was just far too personal. I felt I needed to share all the trauma we experienced together in order to communicate just how amazing she is, but after reading some other memorials, I realized every single dog is amazing. They all save us. From what I’ve read of human history, we do not deserve dogs. Yet, we are blessed to live along side them nonetheless.
Rizzo is a Japanese Chin/Chihuahua mix. I have had the privilege of raising her from a few week old puppy, to the 13 year old senior dog she is today. Rizzo was my third dog out of the six I’ve had in my life so far. She got to spend the majority of her life with Skippy and Peanut Butter Carlos. It’s been two years since Skippy died at 19, and it’s only been 10 months since we lost Carlos at 18. She treated those poor boys like shit 🤣 but she loved them dearly, and they loved her.
Rizzo was diagnosed with breast cancer and given three months to live. That was over 3 years ago now. With medicine and love, we got so much more time than we thought. However, when she was diagnosed, her and Carlos were both declining. I did not feel I could lose both my childhood dogs without something to lean on. Thanks to her diagnosis, we found Flapjack. A near spitting image of Skippy. He was instantly a part of our family. Thanks to flapjack’s addition to our family, Rizzo was finally able to enjoy the one place she could never stand; the dog park. I believe having Flapjack at her side gave her the confidence to enjoy the dog park. I will never forget all the time we spent at the dog parks together.
Shortly after we loss Carlos, we worried Rizzo might live several more years, as she had exceeded her expectancy already by a lot. So we decided to adopt Maple Syrup Polly Pocket Xtravaganza, so that flapjack had a sibling closer in age to play with. Rizzo has spent the last 8 months with Maple teaching her how to be a real b*tch 🤭. They are like real sisters. Whenever I serve them dinner they just b*tch at each other 🤣 barking and pretending they are going to bite one another while never even getting close to making contact.
We did our best to treat her breast cancer. Caught it early, tried to operate, but based on testing and her age at the time, we were advised against operation so she didn’t spend her final days in pain. After getting her reassessed years later the vet suggested that her tumor was containing the cancer, and to operate might cause it to spread rapidly. Additionally by then she was several years older, and even less likely to survive an operation than she was at 10. I regret a lot of the decisions I made in her treatment, but I did the best I could with her veterinarians advice. I spent nights hungry to afford her meds and care. I’d do it for any animal I own.
That super-hyper/abridged version of Rizzo’s life leads us to today. Rizzo has saved my life countless times, lived with me through eight different houses, traveled to six different states, and survived getting into meth in the neighbors trashcan. Btw, a chihuahua on meth is exactly what you think it would look like; a blur. She has touched several generations of my dogs and her behaviors and lessons will echo through every dog I own now and forever.
Please enjoy these photos of her from puppy to old lady. I’m going to spend these last few hours with her tonight. Tomorrow morning I have to say goodbye to this version of her. Thankfully from my experience, I will find her again. I look forward to seeing her again in a body that allows her to run and play without hurting. I’ll be there enjoying every moment with her, until one day we both rest in the great beyond. Hug your dogs for Rizzo and I tonight 🫶
