My baby chihuahua, Zatanna, left us a week ago. (pics included)

[Behind the Aegis]

It has taken me this long to even post about this. I haven't even really posted on DU because of it.

We noticed Zatanna was having some issues breathing late in the evening of Friday, January 27 and it got worse Saturday morning. I stayed up with her until we could take her to our vet at 8am. We were told we needed to take her to the Animal hospital 45 minutes away in Tulsa. We came home, got her ready and went down there. They decided it was best for her to stay at least one night. I was already having some anxiety issues because almost exactly 18 months ago, we took our little man, Voodoo, there and came home with a box of ashes. Zatanna was diagnosed with congestive heart disease almost three years ago, and since, we had been giving her three pills in the morning and three in the evening, as well as liquid medicine for her cough every night before bed. They placed her in an oxygen carrier, and we came home. Sunday, we went to visit her, and she was alert, tail wagging and a healthy appetite. We stayed about an hour, then came home again. We got an update that evening and said they were concerned, but the prognosis was looking better because they figured out the problem was not heart related.

Monday night, the news was more grim, but they planned to but her on steroids, keep her in the oxygen carrier, and give her some different meds. They said if there were any issues, they would let us know. 4:30am, they called and told me she was in really bad shape, and we needed to come down later in the day (now Tuesday). Two hours later, they called again and her heart had stopped, they brought her back using CPR. My husband and I got ready (I had only had an hour and a half of sleep), when they called again, and said, it was unlikely we would get there before she passed. My husband responded, "The HELL we won't!" We left 10 minutes later and drove for 45 minutes in complete silence, except for my occasional sobs and my husband sniffling.

We got there and were escorted to the ICU and there was our baby with a breathing tube down her throat and under a mountain of blankets because she couldn't regulate her body temperature. I reached under the blankets and her little belly was so cold, it startled me. My husband was crying, which he NEVER does. Zatanna, our 4.1-pound chihuahua, was laying mostly motionless with a tube in her throat almost as big as her muzzle. The vet told us after her cardiac arrest she was without oxygen for almost 6 minutes, and it was likely she suffered brain damage. She told us Zatanna might recover enough to go home at some point, but it was unlikely, and there was no guarantee she would be the same dog. It took us twenty minutes, but we finally decided to let her go. They unhooked her from all the machines, my husband held her back paws and rubbed her belly, I held her front paws and kissed her little baby head, like I had done every night for almost 10 years, and told her, "Daddy and I love you so much. Nite nite my baby." Then she was gone. We picked up her limp body and held her for the last time. The drive home was agony and again mostly silent.

When he arrived home, our last two dogs, Marigny and Laveau, sisters, were howling, screeching, and bolted into the garage. Laveau circled the car and scratched at the doors. My husband and I were still in tears, well, I was sobbing. Laveau actually had tears coming from her eyes. That made it worse. Marigny, who was Zatanna's best buddy, just ran around and around, whimpering. This past Friday, we went back to the hospital to get her remains and brought her home for the last time.

Now, let me end this with happiness and tell you about her life!

Born in April 2011, we got her four months later. We had just moved back from New Orleans. I had told my husband about her, and he went to our friend who had her. I came downstairs and there he was with her on his stomach. He said, "What if we call her Zatanna?" With all the pets we had, dogs, hamsters, fish, and birds, he had never named one of our pets! I called our friend and told her I would be by later with the payment. Zatanna now lived with us. For almost two weeks, she never made a sound...that soon ended. She became our most vocal dog and she was definitely a "Daddy's girl".

She would let us know when someone was at the door. She barked when she was ready to come back into the house. She loved going outside and sitting by the fence that faced the street so she could bark at passerbys! She barked at Daddy when it was nite-nite time. She loved laying with my husband, especially propping her head on his arm, which made typing difficult for him; he misses that now. She LOVED kissys! If you kissed her cheek, she would then turn her head so you could kiss her other cheek. You were only done when she walked off. Every night when I put her to bed, I kissed one cheek, then the other, then the top of her head, then cheek, cheek, and top of her head one more time saying, "Nite-nite baby, Daddy and I love you!"

She loved when my husband came home and always edged out the other dogs to get his attention. When I entered the room she barked loudly and ran circles around me. At some point, she started putting her tags in her mouth when I came in the room after an extended absence. We have no idea why she did it and why she only did it for ME! My husband constantly carried her around. For a long time, when my husband went to work, everyone went in their individual cages until I woke up and let them out. One day, I went into the bedroom and she was in the bed, not in her cage like everyone else. I assumed my husband forgot to put her in there...NOPE! Zatanna, we called her "Da Baby", had learned to open her cage and walk up the stairs next to the bed. We caught her doing this using a nanny cam!

She would push the other dogs out of the way if my husband was kissing on them. She had to sleep ON him. She also loved to lick him. She loved hot dogs, chicken, and treats. She was NOT a picky eater. She was best friends with Marigny. They travelled together often. Another quirk of her's was that she didn't jump down from the couch like a regular dog, she would stand on the edge and plop off like she was parachuting. It used to crack us up. Also, when she wanted to get up on the couch or another surface, like the bed, she would stand there, whimper (for me) or bark (at my husband) to pick her up. Of course, she was so small, she really couldn't jump high, but unlike the other dogs who would "push off the ground" as I lifted them, she didn't. She had to be picked up, no effort on her part. LOL!

She was a sweet little dog, often with her little baby tongue hanging out. We love her so much and miss her. I was so upset when we were driving home because, unlike when we came back after losing Voodoo when I saw a cloud that looked like a chihuahua following us, I saw nothing. Then, I saw, on our various video photo frames, there she was! Her picture popped up on all five of them as I passed by each one. One last goodbye.