Our Rescue Story of Piximuis

Written by Linda Luus

Professional photography Marique Photography  

In short, we rescued Pixi one year and six months ago, but, in reality… she saved us!

Let me tell you about my rescue princess, a beautiful teacup Yorkie named Piximuis – Pixi because she has ears like a pixie, and muis because she’s not much bigger than a mouse. She was rescued on the 9^th of September 2023, which is now also her birthday for me.

During a rescue operation of 64 Toy Pomeranians, and with four volunteers who worked the whole week on site, I went to help on the Saturday morning.

Coming out of hiding

While attending to the doggies, I saw this little one crawling out of a hole in a wall. She was dirty, long tangled hair, skin and bone, and tried to walk but kept falling.

I immediately went into the cage-like yard and picked her up. It was as if she’d used the last of her strength to come out. I didn’t wait and took her and four other Pommies home with me!

I took her to the first vet the same day; all she said was that she wouldn’t make it, being too malnourished and in a poor state, and she wanted to put her down. I left and again took her home and started feeding her specialised vet food for ailing dogs, along with small sips of water with a probiotic and electrolytes right through the night. I didn’t give her a bath as she was just too exhausted and I thought it could wait, but I had to try and cut as much of the matted hair as I could to actually see her face and body.

This is very bad

The next morning, I took her to the second vet, who gave a bit more hope, but not much. She was diagnosed with several “problems”, as they called them… malnutrition, severe eye infection, and what seemed to be a cleft lip, probably due to inbreeding. She also didn’t seem to have a kneecap, which explained why she couldn’t walk. She had a very long scar on her stomach and there appeared to be stitches in or something because it felt hard inside. In addition to this there was a rupture between the stomach and the leg.

I thought this is bad, it’s very bad. I admit for a moment I thought maybe I should agree and have them put her down, but I couldn’t. Again, I went home in tears and discussed it with my husband. She was so scared she hid behind and underneath the side table next to my bed.

We decided that we weren’t going to give up on her. I’d take her to my regular vet where I always take my animals; she’s not open after hours, but first thing Monday morning I was there with Piximuis.

A long list of suffering

This vet is one person in my life I trust completely, and she told me would it be very hard but Pixi would make it.

Pixi weighed almost 1.1kg. She had a very bad eye infection and cataracts, and the lip wasn’t actually cleft – she had, in fact, been attacked or something worse. The whole upper jaw and nose part is missing due to trauma, while the palate is basically also gone, which means that when she breathes, it’s into the mouth, and when she drinks water, it goes into the lungs.

The seemingly missing kneecap is actually next to the knee on the side, also due to trauma, and when pressed back into place, it just goes back to the side as the muscles have already grown like that, so she’ll never walk properly or will have to undergo an operation. She can’t climb any steps, so mommy carries her, and when she gets excited and tries to run with her brother to go and “catch intruders”, she falls over and struggles to get up, but she manages and eventually also gets there.

The hardness we felt in the stomach wasn’t stitches but scar tissue; and yes, she does have the rupture.

All her teeth were rotten, and the x-rays showed they were rotten for such a long time the decay basically ate away the jaw flesh. She’d never survive an operation, but all the teeth had to be taken out, as it was basically poisoning her. That’s also part of why her stomach was so upset, so it wasn’t just the food that she wasn’t used to as I’d thought.

She needed surgery

They began by treating the infection, stomach, nausea, and pain, and said we must wait. If I could get her weight up (and when she was stronger), the teeth could be taken out. Pixi couldn’t eat because of the damage and must also have been in pain with the rotten broken teeth.

The only food I could give her was specific vet food for sick animals, and the only way I could give it was to hold her and force-smear it on the tongue, which I did when I had no choice, same as with the meds. But she was so scared already and this didn’t help matters. So we found a way: on day four, my husband sat with his back to her on the floor, she behind the side table, and me reaching past him with one hand with the food on the finger to try and get her to eat, not making any eye contact.

This went on twice a day during the week and four times a day over weekends until the end of December. She was still scared but gained weight and looked so much better! With every checkup she picked up a few grams, and by the first week in January, almost four months after she crept out of that hole in the wall, she was ready for the operation.

During the operation they also tried opening the tear channels as her eyes can’t produce tears by themselves, but unfortunately, they couldn’t due to the tear openings being so small.

They took out all but three teeth – the two long ones in front and one in the back holding the jaw together. Due to the decay of the jaw, if this tooth was also removed the lower jaw would hang open permanently.

So, my baby made it, came home, and we only fed her the specialised food again until her mouth healed.

She turned a corner

I stressed and thought it had been difficult up to then… what if it was worse without the teeth? But this is when she really turned the corner. She quickly gained weight and, within three weeks, couldn’t get enough – when I was too slow with feeding her, she tried eating by herself.

She no longer stayed in the bedroom the whole day and came to the kitchen, and later the rest of the house. However, as soon as someone visited (which wasn’t much, luckily), she was back in the room and scared for the next day or two.

She had a very bad life, went through hell, lived in hell, came such a long, painful and difficult road, and today she’s the most loveable, adorable soul I have ever met in my life.

She completed our lives.

Living the life with Pixi

She sleeps on her own pillow between mom and dad – we actually purchased a king-size bed just so that all of us can sleep more comfortably. So, it’s mom, and dad on the sides, Pixi on her pillow in the middle, and Bobbie, her little brother (our eight-year-old Yorkie), just a bit lower with his head on her pillow. She’s picked up quickly from Bobbie and she also now wakes me up to put her on the floor when she wants to wee or go and drink water. She drinks water about six times a night; with a mouth that’s permanently open it dries quickly, so she’s always thirsty. You should see how much she drools on her pillow at night – it’s bad, but it’s so sweet.

We’ve never had a full night’s sleep since we got her, and it’s the best sleep we’ve had in years. Both of us are wide awake when she moves, because we’re scared that she might lose balance and fall and knowing if she’s awake she’s thirsty. When she drinks, she chokes five out of six times and we have to pat her back to get the water out. Then she comes back and makes a weird little sound to be picked up again, and only then can we all go back to sleep.

Every morning she wakes up like an old person, coughing very badly, and then I must clean her eyes and apply lubricant, with the same routine in the afternoons. I still feed her twice a day, morning and afternoons and during the day I leave soft and wet food out for her which she manages to eat by herself.

Now I have a gorgeous, healthy, loving little girl with a heart of gold and a little mouth that can’t wait to give mommy and daddy kisses when we get home.

Her favourite spoil is KFC, and so, from time to time, dad orders a Streetwise Two for them and then it’s happy hour for the two dogs. (With mom and dad watching longingly, because we’re on a diet and can’t eat with them – exactly the opposite to other households where the humans eat and doggies long for a piece.)

She’s now used to wearing clothing, so this winter will be easier. She loves to take a bath and being groomed by mommy, and she now plays with grandma or anyone who visits. Best of all, she loves driving around in the car with mom and dad, so she’s 100% ready to go to the sea to play on the beach with her brother this year.

We still don’t know her real age – we know she’s older, but there’s no way to determine how old she actually is; the vets can only say she’s old and definitely not young.

We don’t know how long we’ll have her, but we’re grateful for every day we do have with her and cannot imagine our lives without her.

She can only hear very loud noises and has very poor eyesight, so when I get home, she waits for me at the front door while I come in through the back door. She can’t hear or see me come anymore, but when I do pick her up, I get a welcome that makes my day!

And when daddy comes home, it’s playtime – then she’s as funny as she possible can be.

Thank you for sharing Piximuis’s story and for all the other Happy Tales – it’s an awesome website!