While Ares was my inspiration for this site and my once-in-a-lifetime dog, he wasn't my first furry best friend. Zoey was.
At age 19 I lived away at college full time but was still convinced that I needed a small dog best friend, in particular, a male Yorkie. While home on break I went looking at dogs and found myself at a pet store in South Jersey. I saw this little fluff ball, a gerbil sized dog that I decided to play with in a designated area with a few other pups.
Let me tell you - this dog was smaller than the others but fierce - she was beating up all the puppies in her visit. My parents had cats at the time and we knew we needed a tough dog to deal with the cats. This little fluff was the one.
She was too young to take home at the time so we had to go back to pick her up. She was so cute, so small and my dad was set on not getting close to her. He didn't want us to bring home a dog because he said it was too hard to lose them.
Zoey came home and was loved by all who knew her. She was just 2.8 pounds at first and was about 10 pounds most of her life. But she ran the show. More importantly she was there to comfort all of us through a lot of losses.
When I got Ares, even at his smallest he was three times her size, but she was still in charge when I brought him over to visit. She grew to like him as much as he liked her. When no one was watching they'd chase each other around my parents' back yard. He was 100 pounds chasing around a 10 pound shih tzu. It was the sweetest thing.
I never thought she would outlive Ares but she did by 7 months exactly. Ares left me on May 10th, 2019 and she joined him on December 10th, 2019.
That's the thing about dogs - you never have enough time with them. Zoey passed peacefully in her sleep while Ares fought being put to sleep even though his body had completely given up on him. Neither way is easy nor is either loss.
How come no one has invented a way to extend dogs' lives? Why do horses live to be in their 30s but dogs don't?
You can read Zoey's obituary here