Some of you have met Mia, a Bassett Ariegois - or seen this photo of her in exhibitions. Sadly, today she was put to sleep.
It's
been a bad few weeks lately. First, my oldest dog, Beau - a black and
tan Bruno du Jura, had to be put to sleep. It was his time. Indeed the
deed was done not a day too early or too late and I was okay about it.
He'd had a good life here and lived far longer than he would have in the
particular refuge he was in.
But Mia, who had a dreadful
early life (as did Beau) didn't deserve to have been so sick for the
last two or three weeks of her life. She'd had an ear infection for six
months, nothing would clear it up and the skin deep within her ear got
so thin it started bleeding. At this time I changed vets, not because I
didn't have the best faith in my old vet but because Mia was so car
sick every time I drove a distance to her and she understood and agreed.
The new vet gave me product for her ears that went into her blood
stream and caused massive inbalance and semi-paralysis - and ever since
then we've been trying to get her right. And I changed vets again, of
course.
Last night she became totally paralyzed and so this morning she went to the vet on her last journey.
When
I got Mia around 7 years ago she'd been living in a filthy 2 metre
square run with another dog, Mistral. She'd obviously had several
litters of puppies and was thin as a stick and with bleeding skin.
They'd been living on top of years of excrement and having food thrown
over the fence. The owner died and the son wanted to shoot them. So,
they came to me. Mistral lived only 3 months because she had cancer, but
Mia put on weight and was in excellent health, except mentally and
emotionally. All her years with me she was terrified of any visitor,
especially men.
Mia was a wonderful dog, so kind, so sensitive. I miss her like crazy.
So, now, this house is very empty. I
have this photo of Mia hanging on my wall. And another of Beau hangs
elsewhere. I'll show you Beau's photo another time.
(the second photo shows Mia with her friend Maggie, in the background).