Hi ladies,
Have to admit I have never been a fan of little dogs
I've always liked 'dog dogs' iykwim
...lab, gsd, mastiff, husky etc. but my whole outlook on little ones was changed when my dear Auntie Jose entrusted us with her beautiful little shih tzu Sophie, while she was in hospital. A couple of months before, we had had a strange conversation with her where she told us how worried she was that if anything was to happen to her, she wouldn't know who would take Sophie as she was 11 and needed daily medication and a lot of care and money spent on her. Of course Gwyn and I said straight away that we would look after her, and Jose knew we'd do our best for her as we still had our other dog Simba at the time who was nearly 14 and who we really loved. Anyway, Jose made us promise that we'd take Sophie if the need ever arose, & we carried on as normal for a while. What we didn't know was that Jose was being investigated for bowel cancer at the time, and that's why she was so insistent on sorting Sophie out.
So we took Jose for some tests, & I was with her when she was diagnosed with a very small bowel cancer, which we were told was totally operable and curable, and she received a date for her op. However before the op, she began to get quite het up and distressed, so she was admitted as an emergency and we took Sophie to stay with us for a while. The hospital decided to operate, but with a different surgeon to the one who was scheduled to do it as he was off sick, and it appeared the op was a success. But after a few days, Jose became very sick, and a scan revealed the bowel had ruptured and caused severe blood poisoning. Despite an emergency operation to remove the damaged area and being ventilated in intensive care, my lovely auntie died. It was a devastating time for us all, and should never have happened. On further investigation, it was found that the first surgeon had failed to sew the bowel up properly, and left the country when Jose became ill.
So we ended up with this little bundle of fluff who was pining for her mum and wouldn't leave the house...she spent all her time looking for Jose :cry: But we spent a lot of time with her, and soon she latched on to me as her new mummy and followed me everywhere. Sophie didn't really have anything to do with Simba as Jose had rehomed her at the age of 4 (through a charity organisation) from a breeder who no longer wanted her as she was too old to breed from
so poor Sophie hadn't been socialised at all and didn't know how to interact with other dogs or even how to play :sigh: But they had a happy tolerance of each other.
Anyway, this little shiddy just wriggled her way into all our hearts to the point where we felt we'd always had her. She was adorable, such a happy girl who was so desperate to please! And she loved her cuddles. But everything was torn apart at Christmas, shortly after we had lost Simba, when she was diagnosed with mouth cancer, and she died a couple of months later :cry:
Now I know we can't ever replace Sophie or Simba, and we wouldn't want to, but we are missing having a dog around so much. We decided to wait to see if we really wanted the responsibility of another one, and we feel now that we do. And as it needs to be small enough for us to take in the car (Gwyns is an Astra and mine's a peugeot so not very big) we were thinking about another shih tzu. I'd never have given them a second look if it hadn't have been for our experiences with Sophie! As a breed, they're fairly small but stocky and robust, and terrific with children. We are well acquainted with the common ailments they have as Sophie was blind (keratitis) and we had to put grease in her eyes twice a day. She had medication for the arthritis in her shoulders, and she had a skin allergy. She damaged a cruciate ligament for which we had pain killers and paid for a dog physio to come to the house
And we kept the same home dog groomer that Jose used to use, and who Gwyn actually taught at school lol!
Despite all of these problems, she was the most loving, affectionate, cheerful, beautiful little girl...and that's why we are thinking of getting a shih tzu. It make sense really as we have learned so much about them in the 2 years we had Sophie. But...nothings definite yet...we're just starting to have a look around now as we really want to make the right decision xx
Sure it won't be anywhere as nice as the one you and Jules did!!! 
