by Geneieve
(Woodbridge VA)
Dweezle seems like a silly name but in a lot of ways he was a silly dog. He was a beautiful dappled Dachshund who loved all. Unfortunately, when he was 5, he jumped off our couch and slipped a disk. He could barely move his back left leg, and his back right leg not at all. Thankfully after two weeks of careful medication and kennel rest he made as full of a recovery as possible for his type of energy.
In most ways he was back to normal though we always knew that the problem could reoccur, and if it did, he would have to be put down. A couple of months later he escaped the house and ran into my neighbor's yard. My neighbor has two akihedas, a breed known for their aggression. It was dark outside and we could not tell exactly what happened but we do know that he was caught by them and let out a loud yelp before getting away.
I should have known that something was wrong when he very easily let me catch him and take him back inside, something he doesn't usually do. Once inside we noticed that he had a limp again, similar to the one that he had before. We decided that the best thing to do was to put him in his kennel and if the limp was still there in the morning.
Dweezle didn't make it until morning. Though there were no puncture wounds on him, we believe that he had suffered internal bleeding after the encounter, that he was literally crushed to death by the two larger dogs. Though he wasn't discovered until morning, it was obvious that he had been dead for quite sometime and probably hadn't lasted more than a couple hours.
I love and miss him so much. I should have him on my lap, but instead he is dead and he will never live another day to curl up on the couch.