Beloved Pet Passes

GraceAnn Walden has written seven restaurant guidebooks, a cookbook, and was an award-winning columnist who led food-history tours visiting the best spots in San Francisco where participants dined along the way.

Here's an excerpt from a sad, yet heart-warming newsletter sent out:

Today, Cosmo died in my arms. I knew last night that the end was near, but thank God he wasn't in any pain. He stopped eating three days ago. Late last night, I gave him double his pain meds in an oral syringe.

He slept all night next to me. I carried him out to pee and he couldn't stand up. I picked him up and he peed on me and then died.

I was preparing to take him to the Vet for the shot.

David, who lives across the street, dug the grave.

I never, ever wanted a Chihuahua. But when I knew Shibui was going to die, I adopted him from Small Dog Rescue. Shibui and he loved each other. I said he was the understudy. Shibui, a terrier rescue, was with me 17 years. One day, someone said to me, he's too long to be a Chihuahua. That's when I realized he was half Doxie. That was why he was not yappy, but rather mellow.

He would eat almost anything. He loved fish and spaghetti and dried liver treats. When I would come home from a review, he was all over the doggie bag, knowing it might have steak or prime rib. He adored pizza, Chinese take-out…

Toys were not his thing. Ball? Are you kidding? He did love running as fast as his little legs could take him towards me, though.

If I held him in my arms and told him what a good boy he was, he would throw his head back and swoon.

When I got him, he came from a military base in Southern California. He would grab food and run away with it. I surmised that where he came from he had to compete for food with bigger dogs. That soon ended.

My neighbor, Alvar, called him "Cosmolito the Burrito."

When I got Gabby, she was four months old. He was her main plaything. When he had enough, he'd growl and fake snap.

I came home one day and they were playing a game, probably that she had invented. He was in the middle of the bed and she would partially jump up from various sides. He would bark at her.

He was about six when I got him and we lived together for ten years.

I know some people don't like it when animals are loved and respected as much as children.

But he was my sweet little boy and no one, even his passing, can take that away from me.

Gabby, my Mau cat, is a character and very loving. The birds are sweet.

No more dogs in this life.

I did start feeding a stray orange cat on our deck. I think I'll call him Cosmo.

With love,

GraceAnn

She is survived by her beloved Bruno Mars (dog), Tinkerbell (dog), Gabby (cat), three little birds and the plethora of friends that still wait to hear what she had to say