My Sweet Muffy

by Glenda C
(Frisco, TX)

On June 27, 2011 at 10:23 a.m., my sweet Muffy died. A few days before, she began to walk alarmingly slow. I just thought it was the Texas heat. I dropped her off at the vet to be checked out which I had done so often before since she had chronic colitis. I went on my way to my own doctors appointment expecting to pick Muffy up in a couple of hours.

Instead, the pet hospital called me on my cell phone 3 times to tell me of the crisis as soon as it began. The last message I picked up after my appointment was that she had died! The shock was awful. I simply lost it out in public. I don't know how I drove to the pet hospital just so I could hold her. I can hardly get the image out of my mind of her limp little 5 pound body in my arms. For weeks, I have hardly been able to stop the tears, torturing myself. How could I have known that she was bleeding internally? Did she fall from the furniture and rupture something? Did she eat something that ruptured her esophagus? Only heaven knows.

Muffy came into my life 8 ½ years ago. She was running down the street toward heavy traffic when a friend opened her car door and Muffy jumped in! The friend couldn't keep her because of work, so I was blessed to receive this gift. We fell in love at first sight! Our devotion to each other was known far and wide. I saw her through 3 cancer surgeries and she saw me through upsets of various kinds throughout the years. We were walking into senior years together. She was a gift to me, but was taken so suddenly.

I pray a lot for peaceful acceptance and I know it will come eventually. I'm left with memories that make me smile. She could hear me open the peanut butter jar from the next room! She would stare intently at the computer screen as I held her while I read emails. She would ride on my left arm, on the same eye level as me when we went for a ride in the car. People would look over and smile because we both have curly white hair. I would just talk to her and say, "look at those people." I held her in my arms like a baby while I told her a story on many nights. The story began "once upon a time, there was a little white dog running down the street. The cars were going by zoom, zoom, zoom." Her eyes were so big.

I will never forget my sweet girl and the comfort she brought me. It has been consoling to read the stories of others who have adored and lost their "companion pets." Blessings to you all. My heart goes out to you as we share our grief.