My Baby Girl - Jewel

by Joy M.
(Orlando, FL USA)

Jewel died on Friday, March 2, 2012. She was just 19 months old. I can't believe she is gone and that I'll never get to see her little face come run over to me as I walk in the door. She was ALWAYS so excited to see me and would lay down on her back so I could give her belly a good scratching. She was such a sweet humble little dog. Everyone that ever met her just fell in love with her. She was a JRT shorty and most people I'm surprised to find out have never seen one before. So when they see her and her great little personality they just would fall in love with her like I did.

She was so protective of me and would sit with me either at my feet or with me in my big chair. Oh and she LOVED to chace squirrels in the yard. Wow I think that was her favorite thing to do. She'd just take off like a bullet after them. And when she'd run fast like that she would do these little jumps that remind me of how a gazel jumps when it runs. Has anyone else seen that in their JRT?
When my husband was out of the country for 3 months last year she was sleep with me. I am a left side sleeper so she would sleep with her back against my back. It made me feel so much better and helped me sleep because I don't sleep well when I'm by myself. Oh I could go on and on about her. But now I guess you all would like to know how she died. I dread telling you because it is so awful. My husband and I bought some baby chicks about a month ago. When they were old enough my husband put them in our back yard in a little house he had built. However he found that rats had been getting in there before when we had some rabbits and he didn't want that happening again with the baby chicks. So he got some rat poison and put it out. He thought he put it out behind some wood pile where she couldn't get to it. Well needless to say she somehow pushed her way to it and pulled it out to where it fell on the ground and she ate some of it. We had no idea. The only thing I noticed was that she had a nasty cut on her front right paw. But then her breathing got realy bad and of course I got REAL worried so I took her to the vet. After doing some thinking back and figuring I think this was about a little less than 48 hours after she ate to rat poison. But I thought I was just taking her in for the cut on her paw and somehow that was affecting her breathing. I thought she was just in a lot of pain. Well she was. . . it just wasn't from the cut. The doctors finally pinpointed that it was rat poison and she was dieing. I was in shock but I gave them permission to euthanize her. I couldn't bear the thought of her suffering any longer. I feel SO bad that I couldn't have done more or that I should have gone in the back yard to see where the rat poison was so I could have removed it. I'll never feel right about it. . . ever.

I cry every day for her! I love you Jewel!! And I'm so sorry that you were hurting baby! Mama is SO sorry she couldn't make you better!!!

P.S. - I tried uploading pictures but it didn't work.