Sissy was a very loud Finnish Spitz. We didn't know she was a Finnish Spitz till about a year before she died. She was 13 years old and suffering from an auto-immune deficiency; we had to put her down on June 23nd, 2007, a Saturday. I owned Sissy since she was a baby. Originally I was told that she was a Chow but she doesn't really look like a Chow. I remember that whenever people would see her, they would stop me and ask me what type of animal she was...I had to laugh. She's a cow! Here's your sign.
Siskiyou was named after Lake Siskiyou because that is where I adobted her; Lake Siskiyou Pound. She was in a kennel with her vicious mother and her white and red brother. I was very tempted to buy her brother too but I decided against it because I already had an older dog.
Sissy was a great dog and loved having attention and got jealous of our other dog, Sara. Sara beat Sissy up a lot but Sara only ever bit at Sis' ears; so her once very pointy ears were floppy the last two years of her life. She ALWAYS barked and sometimes it was at absolutely nothing. She was very protective though.
I spoiled her a lot because I've never had children of my own so Sissy was my daughter in a way. I had a lot of fun watching her grow from an iddy bitty puppy to a medium sized full grown dog. She was stubborn and pushy and a flaming red head too!
Sissy enjoyed chasing tennis balls and swimming at the lake when she was younger but as she got older and her hips started to detriorate, she was pretty much unable to do a lot of the things she enjoyed to do when she was younger. She had a hard time getting up from laying down on the floor/ground and she had difficulties going up stairs.
When the end was nearing, she went through phases during the day. In the morning she wouldn't be able to get up at all and she wouldn't eat. She'd be fine for the rest of the day though. She was a trooper but we all knew that the end was drawing nearer and nearer; even visitors noticed. She was my baby and I'll miss her dearly.
She didn't really like kids for most of her life because of an incident that happened to her when one of my friends brought her son to my house in San Ramon. But she grew to love Anna, my other friend's daughter. Anna was able to see her for one last time before she passed away; Anna moved away for college in a different state only three days before I had to put Sissy down.
Sissy thought she was tough sh** but she was really a big softy. She never snapped at or bit anyone ever in her entire life (at least not on purpose). She was all bark and no bite.
Sissy, we'll always miss you and love you. It's too quiet in the house now that you're gone.
XOXO
Jackie, Darlene, Anna, Sara, and all of your friends (humans and animals alike)