MORE SENSELESS ACTS OF BLOGGERY

Our Shih-tzu Funny is in heaven now.

She was 17, so it was not entirely unexpected, although not just because of her age.

As some of you know, last year Funny was diagnosed with a slipped disc that had paralyzed her legs. Her only hope was acupuncture and physio, and after six months she was on her feet and walking. But at the start of this year her walking was getting shaky and she found it harder to push herself out of bed.

Last month her front legs seemed to be stiffening up so we took her back to the acupuncturist who had been treating her.

Her diagnosis: Funny’s neck was swollen, which meant either another slipped disc, or more likely cancer. At her age, neither was treatable, so we opted to take her home and make her as comfortable as we could.

That was two weeks ago. Last night she passed away suddenly and peacefully in her bed.

I should mention here that we didn’t own her for her entire lifetime. We acquired her in 2014 from her original owner who was clearly eager to get rid of her. We wanted to have an initial meeting to see if Funny and our current dog Bonbon would get along, after which we would decide what to do. As soon as the meeting was over, the owner handed us all of Funny’s belongings and HKD5,000 in cash for the medical checkup we’d asked her to do first, hopped in a van and was gone.

And so we brought Funny home. When we took her to the vet, we found out thanks to her microchip data that she was not in fact eight years old as the owner claimed, but 12. Which is the average life span of a Shih-tzu.

At that point we knew we probably wouldn't own her for very long.

In the end, we got five years and change with her. I admit, it took awhile to adjust to her – she was very mellow but not very affectionate. She had only the one facial expression, which was sort of this weird stare. I suspect she had trust issues from her previous owner. So that made bonding with her difficult.

But anyway, we came to love her, and I think she came to love us, or at least trust us. We feel truly blessed to have had her in our life, even as she became more difficult to look after. It’s quite an experience taking care of a quadriplegic dog, and I do feel like this experience had some kind of spiritual purpose to it. I’ve no idea what that might be, but all will be revealed one day. Anyway, all the work and lack of sleep was worth it.

We are grateful for the time we were able to spend with her, and we are glad that we had the opportunity and ability to make her last years safe, comfortable and peaceful.

Rest in peace, Funny. May you run with joy in the fields of Heaven and your food bowl always overflow. Good dog.