A different sort of TBT. For the love of all creatures great and small. I had to pause for a bit this morning learning of the sad news of our friends Carling McCormick and her husband Ryans sudden loss of their great dane puppy Benedict. As someone who grew up surrounded by pets and comfortable around all animals...(well, except for spiders) I was immediately brought back to the memory of my own dear creatures who have shared their lives with me. I lived in Miami during and after Hurricane Andrew. It was a challenging time for everyone and I dont know anyone living there at that time that wasnt affected somehow by the storm. It was also around this time that I had been thinking about adopting a pet but the storm had put that on hold for a bit. I was driving home one evening and out of the corner of my eye this ball of white fur darted in front of my car. Slamming on the breaks and pulling off to the side of the road I jumped out to make sure I hadnt hit whatever it was that rolled into the street. The sun was almost down and I didnt see her at first but hovering down off the shoulder was this 2 lb white haired puppy, dragging a chain link leash along with her. She cringed as I picked her up and then I saw the reality. Her tongue was hanging out and blue, she had cuts all over her head, and was missing half her hair. It was a sad sight and I did what I would hope anyone would do in that situation, I brought her to the vet. For no other reason than it was the right thing to do. Coincidentally there was an all night vet less than 5 minutes away from my location. I dropped her off and left my name and phone number with the vet on duty and assumed she would be put down just from the sight of her. Lo and behold, the vet called me the next day. He gave an overview of her condition, shes about 3 months old, dehydration, concussion, and mange but after some treatment she should be ok and would I know anyone who would want to adopt her? It was one of those moments in our lives where you get very little time to react, and in hindsight Im not even sure it was me saying the words, but I told him, Ill be right there to get her. All I can say is this little creature gave me the most glorious next 14 years of my life. I named her Mimi. Which horrified my Mother as that was her Mothers name(...and thats a whole other chapter.) I dragged that dog to live in NYC with me, back to FL and all around this country. Whether she chose me or I her, I will never know. The only thing I do know was she was my girl, my daughter, my consoler, my buddy, my duty, and one of my true loves. It didnt matter if I had known her for 6 hours or 16 years...these creatures great and small, all of them.... are truly a gift. A gift I will never forget.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 19:23:42 +0000
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