With profound sadness, I had to euthanize our beloved Princess on 7/7/13.  Princess was a Shih Tzu and only 13 months old. We had her for a little less than a year. However, she was a complete joy and smart. She learned to be house broken in about two weeks. She was smart, adorable, playful and followed me everywhere.  If my wife went left and I went right she was always behind me. My wife jokingly called her my shadow.  I always found it amazing that if I entered a different room in the house, she would wait by the door until I invited her into the room. Unlike other dogs I had that just entered.

After several months, she began having episodes where her hind legs failed her. She would get nervous and start shaking when these episodes occurred. On Thanksgiving 2012, I rushed her to the emergency pet hospital. She underwent 3 days of hospitalization, but all diagnostic testing such as tests for toxins, blood work, liver tests and more showed nothing wrong. Over the next six months, she had several more episodes and each time I sought different vets and nothing was ever found. One vet even refused to believe there was a problem. So I took a video of her on a typical day showing she was fine and then another during one such episode where her hind legs failed her and showed it to the vet.  To cut this story short, on 7/4/13, she had another episode. This time it looked like she was breathing under stress. We were laying down on the floor watching television and she got up and put her head on my hand. That was my signal that something was wrong. So I rushed her to the animal hospital in NYC. An MRI showed that the part of the brain which controls motor control was dead. She became blind and loss use of all limbs. At that moment I knew it was time to let her go. My wife and I visited her and she looked tired. On that last day, I put her head in my hand and stroked her telling her it was ok while the doctor administered the lethal dosage to put her down. She went quietly. The doctors still have no idea why her brain tissue was dying. I consented to an autopsy of her and asked that the results be published in an effort to help other dogs in the future. We loved our Princess dearly.

— Robert from New York, NY