This little dog will give you hope. Meet Gizmo!
You wouldn’t think that the passing of a 13-year-old dog could be considered sudden, but it was. Which is why it was a shock when, after seven months in our care, the elderly terrier went into renal failure.
Gizmo didn’t have a home, but he did have a family of sorts, houses he loved to visit and a good life. He died because he was old and his body couldn’t go on anymore.
When we met Gizmo, he was a mess. He had only three teeth in his head, and his tongue hung out to one side. But with his little, brown, button eyes and low wagging tail, he was irresistible.
Found on the streets, he was running out of time at a crowded city shelter. When the shelter let us know that he needed help, HSSV transport coordinator Candy swooped him up and brought him back to us.
Gizmo spent the majority of the seven months he was with us in foster care. While he came in for doctor visits and adoption fairs, he lived the life of a normal dog: He went for walks. He rode in a car. He slept inside. Because he was so “dentally challenged,” his meals were specially prepared.
Due to his mellow nature, he was given the run of the joint so he could follow her wherever she went. Some nights, he went home with her, others, he went home with volunteer Kelly, who took him on beach outings and made sure he got his walks. Because Gizmo loved walks, even if he couldn’t keep up.
But one weekend, he stopped eating and became lethargic. A blood test confirmed that his kidneys had begun to fail. Amid tears, the decision was made to euthanize him.
He had a great life because people cared.
No, Gizmo’s story doesn’t have a textbook happy ending. There are no unicorns, no sunsets, nothing to wrap it up in a happy bow. It does, however, demonstrate how far we’ve come.
Gizmo was defiantly a special pup and he was so lucky to have all those people who cared about him! He lived a wonderful life and even though his death was sudden, he still left everyone around him with lots of love and inspiration.
To learn more abut Gizmo and the HSSV, be sure to check out The Bark.
