Fifteen years ago, some friends at church said they had this puppy that their dog didn't get along with, and asked if we were interested in taking her.

She was a half Shih-Tsu, half "something else", best guess by our vet was border terrier.  Ginny named her Sneakers, from a childrens' book she used in her preschool class.  Sneakers would also answer to the name "Hoover" whenever something edible was dropped in the kitchen.

For the past few years, she's really been slowing down.  Earlier this year, I let her out one morning, and she took a few steps then keeled over.  I thought she had dropped dead, but she got back up.  We took her to her buddy Dr. Webb. (Sneakers loved our vet; she'd be pulling on the leash hurrying to see him.)  He took an X-ray and said she was suffering from congestive heart failure.

He prescribed Vedmedin, a.k.a pimobendan.  Sneakers was soon almost back to her old self.

Pimobendan is billed as giving dogs with congestive heart failure another good six months of life.  It gave Sneakers a bit more than that, but she also had kidney problems, for which she was on a special diet.  Though she'd always been a "scarf up anything" type of dog, she never seemed to care for the KD, and would try to sneak over and eat our other dog's food.  (And he, a confirmed picky eater, would try to sneak over and eat her KD.)

Then last week, she just quit eating. The blood tests showed her kidneys had failed, and it was time to say goodbye.