Age at Passing
14 years old
Breed
Chihuahua/Rat Terrier
Est. Birth Date
February 14, 1997
Date of Passing
January 5, 2012
Original Adoption Date
March 1997
Date I Adopted
August 2002
Hershey was a Chihuahua/Rat Terrier mix that my mom first purchased in 1997 for herself, having long wanted a little dog companion. I helped her raise Hershey from puppyhood into a young dog. When I moved to Texas in 2001, my mom followed and brought Hershey with her. In August 2002, mom moved back to North Carolina, leaving Hershey behind because of how much the original trip had strained her, so she became my dog.
She was a character who thought she was a big dog but loved the joys of being a spoiled little dog too, like lots of lap time and having a small circle bed. She knew many commands, but only did them if she felt like them or there was a treat involved. With her small size, she wasn't much for fetching, but she loved playing the chase/run game and was delightfully obsessed with her rope bone.
Late in her fourteenth year of life, she began suffering from kidney failure, which caused her weight to drop drastically and resulted in her having increasingly frequent episodes of dementia. This made her forget her house training and even, at times, seem to forget who the people around her were. .
A month before her fifteenth birthday, with her condition worsening, I made the painful decision to have her euthanized, before her condition got to the point where she forgot her family and loved ones completely. My sweetie and I were there with her, and I held her close until she was gone.
Her body was cremated and is now housed in a wood urn.