Fozi’s mom (and Facebook admin) checking in………
It’s been 2 weeks since we said goodbye to little Fozi, and you all have grieved with us. I promise I will reply to each of your incredibly loving comments, but thought I’d start with this general thank you for all of your heartfelt support. What a wonderful community this Facebook page has become!
Just a bit of background on how this little talking dog came into our lives. Fozi was owner surrendered to the Denver Dumb Friend’s League last July at the ripe old age of 13. To keep my heart from hurting too much, I always imagined that his elderly owner, who had loved him dearly all those years, somehow became unable to care for him and had not arranged for anyone to take him in. He was one of the lucky ones though, and someone adopted Fozi (then called Charley) from the DDFL with the good intention of having him be a companion for their elderly mom in a senior residence. Unfortunately, the elderly mom was heading into Alzheimer’s, so a dog was going to be too much for her to be responsible for. That’s when a lovely young woman who worked at the facility stepped in and took “Charley” home with her. This young lady and her equally amazing sister cared for him and planned to keep him, but they are both very young and struggling to get their feet planted firmly in the work world, so they realized that there may be a better situation for him and contacted us here at the Colorado Miniature Schnauzer Rescue.
Susan Lummanick who runs the rescue asked if my husband and I could foster Charley for a few days until she could arrange accommodations in the rescue for him. We said sure, and one of the young sisters brought him to our home on September 16. The first test, whether our somewhat cranky and elderly mini schnauzer Max who we adopted from Vintage 10 years ago would like Charley, was passed with flying colors, so all was good for a few days of fostering. The foster arrangement quickly became a permanent home when we fell deeply in love with this gentle senior citizen.
Charley came to us a fluffy overgrown boy, and didn’t really know that his name was Charley (I realized this as I chased him on one of his first days down the street calling out any name I could think of to get his attention!), so we decided that since he kind of looked like a Muppet, we’d try the name Fozi Bear, and it stuck!
Tammy is our long time petsitter who comes to our home several days a week to walk the dogs while we are at work. Her communication mode with us is “postcards from the pets” at the end of each visit. After we learned of a fun phone app where you could make your pet talk, Tammy started making videos of the dogs and sending them to me at work. It became a lunch time tradition that my coworkers would come to my office right after lunch and we’d watch the newest clever video and laugh so hard! We started posting these on the Facebook page, and Fozi became the spokesdog for rescue, especially advocating for senior rescue.
One of the first days we had Fozi he claimed a large section of the family room couch when he knocked over a couple of pillows and proceeded to claim this throne. We threw a fleece throw over the pillows, and that is where he could always be found from there on out. Susan Lummanick joked one day upon seeing him perched on his throne that the Foz should do a video explaining how he managed to commandeer half of the couch from his people. This later became his lesson number one on how to take over the couch or bed from your person without appearing to be a couch or bed hog! HAHA!
Fozi always breathed kind of funny, he sneezed a lot after he exerted, and had the reverse sneezing thing happen several times a week. It never occurred to us that he had a nasal blockage until about a week before he left us when his breathing became much more labored. A number of vet visits culminated with a specialty vet who did a CT scan which revealed that his entire left nasal passage and sinus were blocked by a mass, and the mass had broken through the nasal divider into the right nasal passage. As you know, two Fridays ago, we made the heartbreaking decision to not wake him up from anesthesia.
We miss that old guy so much, but we smile a lot when remembering him. We certainly thought we’d have more than 4.5 months with him, but I guess it is the great reminder to love the ones you have while you can, for nothing is ever guaranteed. I have to admit that we are having major withdrawals from the laughter that the videos brought us, so his rescue siblings – Max, Megan and Violet – are planning to audition for the role of new spokesdog. So keep an eye out on the page for these audition tapes.
Thanks again for being such an amazing group of people. It is weird how you really can become friends with people you haven’t necessarily met. We love seeing all of you on the page, so keep on commenting and sharing your beloved pets with us. In the meantime, we’ll keep on finding loving homes for as many dogs as we can, while sharing laughter and community along the way. And who knows, there may be another “foster” one of these days who would enjoy lounging on Fozi’s pillow throne!
Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all!!