Animal Stories

Mignonne

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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.