Flash was a sixteen-year-old Miniature Dachshund who got put down on December 22, 2025, and Oakley is a five-year-old German Shepherd who is a completely different animal in every sense of the word. Neither one of them is a replacement for the other, and that’s not a problem to solve.

Flash was a Miniature Dachshund who lived like the rules didn’t apply to him, and for sixteen years, he was mostly right. We put him down on December 22nd, and I’m still not over it.

Flash, our Miniature Dachshund, lived 16 years in this house and left a hole that doesn’t make sense on paper. This is an honest account of what that actually means.