My precious baby girl, Annie

This photo was taken on 23 May 2012. This was Annie's first day with us. I purchased this bed many years ago for my longhaired Dachshund, Benmore. Annie loved spending time on the verandah. It is no wonder because she had been confined to a small space, sitting, standing and sleeping in her urine and faeces, during her first 8 weeks of life. I placed Annie's favourite toy with her on her bed. This toy rattled. Even though I slept very little, the rattle alerted me in the evenings when Annie stirred. Because of Annie's poor health, I was too frightened to allow her outside the house on our acreage property very often. In fact in her 5 weeks of living with us, I doubt she would have spent even 1 hour outside. Annie was confined to either inside our home or on the verandah to protect her as much as possible. Even doing this I was worried the python who lives next door might come onto the verandah when I was not home and eat Annie. If I had known Annie's life was going to be so short, I would not have done this, but I never imagined I would lose my precious baby girl at 13 weeks of age.