Zoe, a female brindle boxer, was sent to us at the age of 2.5 years when a neighbor told us they were going to put her down. They said they couldn't afford an operation they thought she needed on both rear legs due to torn ACLs. So, we offered to take her and they accepted. We had known and loved her from the time they bought her as a small 8 week old puppy. She played with Max our German Sheppard mix, and they loved each other so much. Zoe ran all over the neighborhood cul-de-sac and her ears were always flipped inside out. She would run and jump and have so much fun. She would see you and run to you and be so excited that she couldn't possibly stand there and allow you to pet her--you'd have to bribe her with a snack to get her to stay still for a spilt second so you could pet her. Max passed away suddenly, after a two week illness that we and the vet thought he was recovering from, and we were heart broken. So when the opportunity to save Zoe came along a year later, we jumped at it.

We all lived happily together for the past 7.5 years taking good care of each other. I would come home from work every day at lunch to let Zoe out. My husband or I would race home every night after work to let her out then feed her--she was our life and we were hers. She had at least 2 walks a day and more on the weekends as no matter how tired John was or how much his feet hurt he would take her any way. She never cared what the weather was--thunder & lightening--bring it on! Snow and sleet--bring it on! She was determined to go for a walk and visit her friends along the way--no matter what.

Zoe ended up being diagnosed with a benign brain tumor on November 10, 2010--a meningioma, which was inoperable due to the location at the brain stem and beneath the brain. The tumor grows and presses on areas of the brain causing various neurological issues and eventually displaces the brain. Looking back, there were signs that there was something wrong. Zoe started having difficulty walking down stairs and would fall to the left--we thought it was her knees or her arthritic spine. Then she had difficulty walking and seemed to be in pain. At times she would walk and tilt her head upwards and to the right as if to look at the sky. The neurologist pointed out that one of her eyes was always dialated and we had never noticed. After reviewing an MRI, the neuorologist gave her 1-2 months to live and we were able to extend her life to more than 2 months! We used all kinds of drugs to keep her comfortable. We even tried chemo in an effort to shrink the tumor and extend her life. Some days she was back to normal with the miracle drug Predisone. Other days she was nearly comatose and seemingly unable to remember where she was or what she was doing. We tried to give her quality of life in her last days and minimize her suffering and we spent every precious moment with her that we could. We laid on the floor with her and cuddled. We walked her whenever she felt like it--even though it was only in the yard or culdesac. John built ramps for her on our two sets of stairs so she could get into the yard. We didn't allow her to do stairs any more.

We spent the Christmas holidays with her at home as we both had lots of time off and she even enjoyed opening some 'presents' that contained lots of her favorite turkey lunch meat on Christmas eve. At times it seemed the tumor might be shrinking so we had hope that we could have her around for quite some time--unfortunately, that was not to be.

Zoe left us on January 15, 2011, one week ago, and we are still heart broken at her loss.

Zoe was an inspiration to us and to all who knew her. She loved everyone and everyone loved her. Her favorite hobby was licking kids. You couldn't keep her away from babies--she wanted to lick them until they were clean--by her standards, which was really never! Neighbors that ran into us while walking their babies had no issues with letting Zoe lick them, which was pretty funny. She would do a show dog stance then would get all wiggly whenever she met someone. She loved so many and there are many folks out there who also love and miss her.

We believe that she is now up there playing with Max once again. Perhaps they are wallowing in another mud puddle together and when they get tired out, Zoe sits on Max's chest panting in his face!

We will always love you Zoe and we'll miss you forever!

Love always, your Mom & Dad