MISTY OF THE QUIET SIDE
This was Misty as a pup. I found her in a pet shop where she had been for some time. She was 4½ months old when we took her home. Because she had been in transit through pet shops (she began her journey in Melbourne and ended up on the Central Coast of NSW), she had a great many phobias. So in some ways she was a rescued dog that we paid dearly for, but she was worth every penny.
A bundle of fun she never really grew from the puppy stage to maturity, but it took her little time to take over the household. While she obeyed a few commands, “sit”, “drop” and “stay” (sometimes), she was very good at looking away when she didn’t want to obey, as if to say “I can’t hear you!”
She grew into a beautiful, loving companion. To Misty, “Life was a lap”. She just loved to be near you.
Sadly, we lost our little girl on February 4th after a very short battle with liver cancer.
It came out of the blue and took us by surprise. After just a couple of weeks illness associated with drastic weight loss she underwent an exploratory laparotomy on 4th February only to find a significant tumour in her liver. The alternatives were virtually nil.
To say the least we were devastated – not at all ready to say goodbye. She would have been 8 years old in May.
Our little girl was a bundle of joy and love. Not a day would go by that she didn’t cause my husband and I to laugh at something. A robust little dog she happily worked 5 km each day with her dad (my husband), stopping from time to time to talk to neighbours. He became known as ‘the man with the little white dog’.
She was an attention seeker and a people pleaser and was forever up to mischief. She would look in wardrobes to fish out any tissues left in the pockets of my jeans. Once found she would take them into our living room and proudly shred them. She ignored all the toys we bought her and her favourite game was fetching a pair of socks I threw for her. She walked backward on tiles and backed out of doorways (the tiles terrified her). She loved a good bark and liked to try to out-bark the Chihuahua a couple of houses away. There was also a black dog who walked with his master each morning which was one of her favourites and she knew exactly what time to expect him.
Her favourite ploys to get attention were finding a forbidden something, showing it, then doing donuts around the living room when asked to “give it”, together with chasing her tail in ever decreasing circles .
Misty just loved people. She waited for one of us to sit down so she would have company. Wherever you were she was either on your chair with you, on the floor or on your lap. She became hysterical with joy when people visited. Very needy! Riding in the basket on the back of my bike was loads of fun.
Helping with bed making in the mornings was fun when she could disappear into the bed-clothes.
People walking on the reserve along the lake at the back of our house always received a mouthful. As soon as the plovers gave the alarm she was at our upstairs window waiting, primed and ready to go.
She knew when I was going out. She watched me get dressed up, then when I left she would bark me off as I got into the car. My husband would then walk her down the end of our long driveway and they would wave ‘goodbye’ as I drove out.
We needed to be so careful nothing landed on the floor that she shouldn’t have. Once found she shredded them or chewed them up. It was embarrassing having to ring the oral surgeon and ask for another OPG referral as the dog had eaten it. On a couple of occasions she got her head stuck in the handles of a shopping bag when she became overly curious and began investigating the contents of the bag.
Misty loved her coats and had a collection of nice coats and t-shirts for ever kind of weather.
She loved her groomer, Jo who would always send her home with a bow and she would leap into her arms front first as a baby does and cuddle up.
She hated wind and barely tolerated storms but was happy cuddled up to my husband sharing his armchair knowing he would protect her.
Our house is strangely quiet now. We will miss her terribly. She was taken too early. But I give thanks to God for the eight years we had her and the joy she brought into our lives.
Give your dog or cat a special cuddle today and thank God for them! Love extravagantly!
Marilyn
