This weekend a family pet finally went into the light as my mom and dad’s little chihuahua Cera passed away after a long and happy life, which other dogs could only dream of.
Cera came into our family around 1990 when we were still living in Old South London. We had a cool little Dashund at the time named Cindy as well, and they were best of friends. Cera got her name from her early days when she would run around with her massive head hitting the carpet, I named her after the girl dinosaur from Land Before Time “Cera” being short for “Tri-Cera-Tops”.
She was a pretty cool little dog, who didn’t really look like a chihuahua (this was about 15 years before the Hollywood teacup dog trend hit it big). She had quite a personality, and did some really funny things like her little “digger dog” trick, which was where she would crawl into your shirt and start digging her way out. My favourite thing when I was younger was her “morning crawl”, where she’d start at the foot of my bed when she woke up, and crawl all the way to the top snorting and sniffing the whole way. I’d grab her and tickle her and toss her around, and she’d come running back.
As she got older, old age caught up with her quickly. Her hips would pop in and out, she had a retina detach, went deaf, then lost the sight in her other eye, and had heart problems.
On Saturday night my mom and dad took her to the emergency vet clinic, and a few hours later had to put her down.
I know the next few days will be really hard on mom and dad. They doted on that little creature like you wouldn’t believe, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a spoiled dog. Not that it’s a bad thing, she was a great little dog, but man was she ever catered to. Heck, without having to take Cera out to the bathroom every hour, my dad might gain some serious weight!