Baby Girl - I miss you

It has now been 4 days since I had to put my little girl down.  This has been a heartbreaker.  Myndi Lee, aka Princess, Baby Girl and the last year or so, Little Ole Lady.  Myndi was born November 13, 1997, her heart stop beating July 15, 2011 at 11:20 am.

Myndi was an only child for the first 18 or so months that we had her, then came the boys.  But right now it is Myndi I am sharing.
This is her first Halloween picture:

This was taken a few months later just before Christmas:

Myndi seem to have this problem with her tongue.  Whenever she was tired it stuck out, the tireder she got the further out it came.

Here are just some random pictures of my little girl, some of my favorites.

Ever the little clown.  You could do anything and everything to Myndi and she came back for more.
My little girl never cried or whimpered, but we never gave her reason to.  She was a perfect baby and perfect companion. 
As you can tell from the pictures, she loved to bury her face in her food.  It was a losing battle to keep that
little face clean and white.  In the end, she won out, we could not keep it clean try as we might. 
When Myndi was younger and before the boys came around, she was kept long as a true show Shih-tzus would be kept.  Top knot, which I learned very quickly how to put in with her bows, we had 100's of bows for her.  Whatever color we were in the mood for, she had a bow.  Just before we finally cut her hair all off into a puppy cut, I was combing her 6+ times a day to keep her from tangling to bad.  Her hair was baby fine and tangled so easy. 
With the addition of the boys, it just became too difficult to keep her long.  I think she was actually glad to get all that hair off.
As she starting getting into the final months of her life, it was a blessing to have her short.  What little bit she was combed she did not tolerate well.  She would start talking to me and letting me know she was not happy getting combed.
Her last few months were hard on all of us.  She had cataracts and was blind in one eye and couldn't see well out of the other.  Noises sent her scurrying somewhere, anywhere, just as long as it was away from the noise.  And most of the time it was everyday noises that sent her scurrying.
When she started having trouble getting in and out of the house, we knew the time with her was short.  Her little hips were giving out, she lost all muscle tone in those little hips and sure she had arthritis.  She acted like she had a stroke when we weren't watching her.  When she quit eating, we knew it was time.  I was not going to watch her starve herself, I couldn't do it.  She had become skinny enough from not eating a lot, but the last week she would not touch her food.  She would eat a few treats, but a puppy cannot live on treats alone.
Friday, we were dragging out feet.  We didn't want to take her to the vet, but knew we had to.  It wasn't fair to her.  She had no life.  She had become completely senile, she really never knew where she was anymore.  Always sleeping.  The vet gave her that final sleep that she didn't wake up from, it was hard.  I didn't want to lose my little girl, but it had to be.  She looked so peaceful once it was over.
We came home, dragging our feet to return knowing Myndi wouldn't be there for us to trip over.  The boys started looking.  They were asking:  You left with Myndi, but she didn't come home with you.  Like us, they still look for her, but she is not there. 
4 days, doesn't seem like a very long time, but it has helped a bit.  I now know that my little girl is no longer in any pain.  It was difficult, but it will get easier.  I still have my boys that need lots of love as they don't understand why we did bring her back home. 
Thanks for letting me share my story of my little girl.  I am going to miss her for a long time, but time will heal the heart.  And just knowing we did the right thing for her makes all the difference in the world.

Maybe I need a new little girl?  Really thinking about it, but it will have to be a very special little girl that could fill the empty spot in my heart.  We'll see, hubby and I said no more, but I don't know, I want another little girl.
Once again, thanks for letting me share.  God Bless.