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Animal Stories
Mignonne
It is with profound sadness that I share with you now that a few
weeks ago, Mignonne, my dog-ter, left this world.
Mignonne was a black, 5 lb., toy Phantom Poodle rescue dog.
Sadly, her early years were spent in a puppy mill and with a
dog hoarder. So, it’s easy to see that her fear and skidishness
were proof of the very difficult life she had before we met.
I melted the very moment she was placed in my arms. This tiny little
creature was a beautiful angel. And, except for her losing some
teeth after 2 pregnancies, she was nearly perfect—a beautiful
dog with exquisite features and a quiet, laid-back disposition.
Early on we could see that she absolutely was a “movie star” by all
of the attention she got. People would stop us everywhere and
admire her sweet face, wiggly walk, white paws and bulls-eye
butt and then say, “What a beautiful dog”! It was like being the
parent of a celebrity! And I was very proud that she and I had
matching snowy-white beards and would tell people: “That’s how
you can tell that she is my “dog-ter”—which made them laugh.
Her last trip, a true adventure for us both, was the first time that
she was ever on an airplane. It was there, while visiting family
in Florida, Don first felt a lump in her neck and showed it to me.
So we took her to the Vet. He said it was most likely a sebaceous
cyst, but took a needle biopsy to be sure. But sadly, it wasn’t a
cyst at all, it was a very aggressive, untreatable cancer that would
double in size every month. His guestimation was that she had
a few months. The cancer though was not on that schedule.
During her final days, she began coughing and having trouble
breathing. She had no interest in food and didn’t want to walk
anymore. She was telling us with her eyes, “please, let me go”.
I didn’t sleep much that night—I just held her close, told her that
I loved her dearly and cried. By the morning I knew though that
although I felt heartbroken, it was time to say our last “Goodbye”.
With Don by my side, we carried her to her Vet’s Office. Mignonne
had lost some weight now and was merely 4lbs 7oz. We cried
as the first shot put her into a dream state, and with the next one,
instantly our sweet poodle was gone—in just the blink of an eye.