This story starts a little over ten years ago. My teen age daughter who is a pet freak (meaning anything furry) discovered a lost Chihuahua roaming the neighborhood lost. I'm mostly a cat person and have not had many dogs but this one was particularly in need of attention. She was covered in tar and oil and was suffering form being mistreated and malnourishment.

My experience with this type of breed was not very favorable as I had an Aunt and Uncle that had one and it was always yipping and had a bad temperament. However, this little one was different. She just sat in the corner of the kitchen shaking and didn't seem to mind the constant sniffing from the resident cats that were very inquisitive about this new object in their kitchen.

We spend the next several hours trying to get our new guest clean and comfortable. Once we got most of the dirt and grime as well as most of the tar, from her fur she seemed to be quite content with her new situation. The cats seemed to accept her as part of the litter and didn't pester her too much. My daughter became immediately attached and was very hesitant at putting up lost dog signs in the neighborhood.

After a few weeks and no responses we decided the best thing to do was to keep her. Her demeanor was that of a larger dog and was not aggressive. She had become a dear friend of my ailing mother. They spent a lot of time together and Fey became a constant companion. She had a big heart for such a little body. Mom was severely depressed and never fully recovered from the lost of my father several years before to cancer. Mom's health was in constant decline but had remarkably improved with the addition of our new guest. The only problem was that Fey had become remarkably rounder as she spent more and more time with mom.

A few years latter with my mother's health quickly declining, she had to be hospitalized. Before she went to the hospital she made me promises to take care of Fey. With that promises made, I tried my best to calm Fey's fears as she would search the house for mom. Well soon we discovered that Mom would not be coming home as she was unable to fight the cancer. In her last few days she was so worried about what would happen to Fey and the rest of us. I promised I would take care of Fey, my wife, and her grand children. With that assurance she went to be with dad.

Fey seemed to know that her dearest friend would not be coming home as she was like a shadow. I couldn't go anywhere in the house without my new constant companion. She mourned for mom but seemed to understand that I was in need of some special attention and she was up to the task.

So now I had a friend for life, a not-so-little furry friend who didn't really resemble that scruffy animal that had come to us abused and starving. She was the little face that met me every night when I came home from work. She would prance around the room in excitement and wanted to be petted. So, as you see, she had become my new companion.

A few months ago she developed a cough and wasn't her happy self. She was no longer a puppy and I was worried that she was coming down with something serious, so off we went to the vets for a visit. The vet explained that while she wasn't old she was a small dog and they sometimes develop heart problems early. So along with this news he told us that she could live many more years and that he had good results from medications for the heart. So now every morning and evening we gave Fey her new treats, her heart medications.

Soon she was nearly back to normal. She was playing again almost like her old self. However, we had to live with a new side effect of the pills. She was unable to hold her bladder and was having accidents. We quickly came up with a remedy as we put down pads for her. The only bad thing was we had to pen her up in our kitchen over night as to not have accidents on the carpet in the morning. She hated that she couldn't sleep in her little dog bed at the foot of our bed but she seemed to take that in stride.

All was well we thought and things seem to go back to our usual hectic pace. Fey seemed to do well and we had thought that she would be with us for several more years. However, yesterday my wife woke and went to the kitchen to let our little furry friend out for her morning constitutional. She thought it strange that Fey wasn't up and wanting to go out. As she approached the bed she noticed that our special friend wasn't moving. It seems that in the middle of the night she heard my mother's call and went to be with her.

Men are not suppose to get all upset over a pet's passing but I'm sure going to miss that little furry face that for years met me at the back door. I'll miss her climbing in my lap every time I set down on the couch to watch TV. The little dog bed is now empty and that little head will not be peaking out looking for us. I'm sure that she was what God had in mind when He decided we needed to give us helpers in life.