Thursday, December 20

Tragedy for Miley Cyrus' Family of Dogs

No matter if you like her or not, this is something as dog lovers and owners we can at least sympathize with the pop star on, Miley Cyrus' Yorkie was killed by her English Bulldog.  Absolutely sad.  The story is below, brought to us by Dogster.

When Miley Cyrus' dog died last Tuesday, she was devastated. Lila, a 2-year-old Maltese and Yorkshire Terrier cross, was one of the singer's many dogs. She tweeted, "Can't think of one good reason to get out of bed today ... For everyone asking ... I have never been so hurt in my life. My heart has never been so broken ... Lila my sweet baby girl has passed away."
She took solace in her other dogs: Ziggy, Floyd, Happy, and Mary Jane. She also often cares for her sister's Yorkie, Penny Lane.
On Sunday, she dedicated her spot on VH1's Diva concert series to Lila, according to the Daily Mail. She tweeted after the show, "Feeling connected to my baby girl Lila after tonight. I know she's up in doggy heaven proud of her mommy for staying strong." For the record, she performed Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell."

(Miley and Lila.) 
But one question remained: How did the dog die? An answer finally arrived via Miley's mother's blog Off the Record, in which Tish Cyrus keeps fans abreast of her famous family's doings.
She writes, "The way that Lila was taken from her was beyond terrible. Sometimes things happen that we just can't understand. Miley still isn't ready to talk about it, but I thought you guys should know what happened."
"For some unknown reason, Ziggy ... grabbed Lila. Not really sure if she was playing or what? She grabbed her in just the wrong spot and Lila didn't survive." 
It appears that Ziggy, Miley's English Bulldog, fatally attacked the much smaller dog. We don't have details, but it seems to be another sad case of a "big dog-little dog" altercation, which are very common, according to our resident vet, Dr. Eric Barchas. 
"A 'dustup' between a very large dog and a very small dog never ends well for the small dog," he writes in a recent Ask a Vet column. "These fights are common enough that they have their own veterinary acronym: BDLD (short for 'big dog-little dog')." 
"Most injuries to the little dog in a BDLD fall into two groups -- those sustained during the bite, and those sustained during the shake."
Tish stresses in her blog post that nobody thought Ziggy was a mean dog. After the attack, Miley took the dog to Spot rescue, Tish continues, where staffers were able to rehome the dog with someone who had no children or other pets, just in case the attack wasn't "a fluke."
In relaying the news, Tish ends up writing a fitting tribute to the bond between a dog and her human: 
"Miley loved Lila more than anyone can imagine. I know some people were saying it's JUST a dog, but to Miley she was so much more. In Miley's life, as you can imagine, its hard to let many people into your tight circle of family and friends. Any time that Miley is sad or having a hard day, Lila was her angel, the one that always loved her unconditionally no matter what was going on in her life at that time. She would always just curl up in bed with Lila for a few hours and then everything would always feel better! She always made me feel better, too."
As for Miley, she's spending quality time with her other dogs. On Monday, she tweeted a photo of herself and Floyd, an Alaskan Klee Kai. 

(Miley and Floyd)