The oldest Maltese dog in the world, Lizzie the Maltese, has passed away at age 89 years old. Lizzie was born in the early 1930s in Chicago, IL. This dog is one of many that lives in Illinois that is close to Chicago, as no other dogs are living there. Lizzie was always close to Chicago, and loved the city.
Lizzie was a bit of a dog person. The Chicago Tribune once called her “the most beautiful dog you’ve ever seen.” You’d think the same thing about a Maltese, because they’re incredibly beautiful. Lizzie was also a very loyal dog. Lizzie’s master was a local politician, but he didn’t think she was worth taking to Washington D.C. for, so he just left her there.
In the last few years there has been a lot of confusion about who is responsible for the care of Lizzie, and why she is still alive. The Chicago Tribune article from back in 2011 stated that Lizzies owner, a local politician who didnt want to travel to D.C. to take Lizzie to Washington, had tried to kill her, but that the dog was too young to survive.
I read that article and then started to think, “if that’s true, then the dog has been in Chicago for quite some time.” Not only is this an old story that has not been verified, but it also suggests that the dog was a rescue or foster dog for Lizzie, so she had obviously been in the home for a few years and then died before Lizzie ever came to Chicago.
The fact that this article makes absolutely no mention of the dog’s age would suggest that it is a local political figure’s dog. That would make the owner a very nice person, but I would not expect her to be a friend of Lizzie’s.
This does seem unlikely. I can’t imagine anyone in Chicago being friendly to a dog that was rescued after being abandoned. That would be a very un-Chicago-like thing.
I was just thinking about that when I was doing the list of people who should be allowed to be friends with Lizzie’s dogs. I would like to know what people think of that very strange idea.
I am not a dog owner. I am not a friend of a dog. I am not a person who should be allowed to be friends with a dog. I am not a dog. I am an animal. That is all.
We love the idea that a dog like Lizzie who has been abandoned by her human family for almost a year might be friendly to strangers. This is because most dogs are really just dogs, and not much else. There are some dogs that are friendly to people who are not dog owners, but not dog owners. For instance, I have known a few dogs that have been rescued by rescue centers, or who have been rescued by a human family.
I am not a dog, nor am I a Maltese. I am just a dog. I am a dog that Lizzie was not allowed to meet because she wasn’t her own dog. Now, in a sense I am a dog because I am the one who made Lizzie the dog she is. But I am also a dog because I was abandoned by my human family and I made Lizzie as a friend.