(Frederica Willamina) Nietzsche
1993- August 29, 2006
When we lose our pets, it’s losing a member of your family. My mom and dad lost a very dear member of their family today, and we’ll miss her. Her name was Nietzsche (Named after the German philosopher, but she had a number nicknames), and for the past 13 years she brought a tremendous amount of joy into the lives of not only my mom and dad, but for our entire family. She was one of the smartest dogs we’ve ever had! She was playful, loyal, street-smart, loved to play fetch, loved having her belly scratched, was a great guard dog, and was such a good girl.
Because she was my parent’s dog, she obviously had the closest bond with them. My brother, Steve was the one who bought Nietzsche for my mom, and the two of them became the best of friends. But Nietzsche loved every member of our family and would often stay with us or my sister when my parents would go on vacation. I used to joke that our condo complex (where my sister lives, too) was Nietzsche’s “summer home” because she felt so comfortable here.
Sadly, for the past year, Nietzsche started to show her age. She started to lose her hearing, her eyesight was getting worse, she started having more frequent seizures, was getting arthritis, and becoming more fearful about being outside by herself. For the past couple of weeks, she was becoming more and more incontinent and wasn’t moving around too much.
Today, after much anguish, my mom took her to the vet where they confirmed pretty much what my parents knew, but didn’t want to face: Nietzsche had too many old-age afflictions and the best thing would be to put her to sleep. So, at 12:30pm (PDT), my parent’s beloved dog was given an injection that ended her suffering. She will be terribly missed and it’s going to take a long time for my folks (and the rest of our family) to get over losing her. But, she brought such joy into our lives that I wanted to share these picture to show all who read this blog what a wonderful dog she was.
This bird was Nietzche’s boyfriend, and had to be around her all the time, or he would get crazy. Nietzsche would often hide in other parts of the house just so she could get away from her stalker boyfriend. One look at Nietzche’s face will tell you that this was a case of a one-sided attraction.
Nietzsche welcoming Maya into the family after we moved back to California from Pennsylvania (circa 1996).
The last time Nietzsche stayed with us when my parents went on vacation.
–PK
