 My Minnie Bear
I write this with such a heavy heart, but I need to get my thoughts out on this incredible friend who just lit up my life as well as those of my family. Minnie was a 12 pound yorkie with gold/silver fur and she had two speeds: sleep and sprint. She made me laugh and our excitement at seeing each other any time I came in the door was always such a highlight of my day. Even in old age she just loved to jump on things and ran at a breakneck speed any time I'd tell her "let's go get a snack Minnie!".
Minnie was a rescue dog. Her original owners left her to die in their backyard when they moved away, but she wasn't about to go for that, surviving on birds she caught and the like before being saved by a kindhearted soul who took her into her home. The only problem was that Minnie was kicking the crap out of her other dogs, even those 4-5 times bigger than her. For this reason she found her way to us 8 years ago, and we instantly fell in love.
We call her Minnie bear as an old hiking joke; the aggressive marmots who like to steal our food at the summits of mountains are mini bears, and Minnie could be every bit as sneaky. Leave your glass of milk on the table too long and she's up there lapping out of it. One time she jumped up on the computer desk and pulled down an entire link of dried sausage hanging about 6 feet above the ground. You could actually see the link hanging down in her little stomach after she devoured it.
Minnie was an incredible athlete. One time after buying a bed about 2.5 feet tall I was standing there in the room wondering how I could give her a way to get onto it and in a split second she just decides she's jumping up there from ground level. I mean this is a pretty small dog and she makes the jump with room to spare. When I'd let her out to the bathroom she'd come back in a Carl Lewis spring, except for the last year of her life when it was more a fast jog. But Minnie loved jumping from couch to couch and up and down from the floor most I think.
Minnie made me laugh so much. When I'd be in the other room working at the desk she'd get up on two legs and start lightly scratching my leg while whimpering for a snack. And then two minutes later it was the same. And then again in 2 more minutes. She was the picture of persistence, and eventually I had to get to where she could only have snacks when I suggested them. But she still always asked,
Minnie loved to hunt. I can't count how many times I'd have to pull doves out her mouth or how many squirrel legs I'd see her chewing on. I was always scared she's catch a rat that could have been poisoned in a neighbor's house (I think rats can live up to a week after eating rat poison), but luckily she never got one. When cats would roam the neighborhood she's get mad as hell. One time she saw one of the cats going to the fence and before I could run to get between them she had yanked the cat off the fence and onto the ground. Would have been really bad news for the cat had I not jumped in and given it an escape route.
In Minnie's eyes it was Christmas any time any of us came home and in the door. Just constant jumping and happy barking the second you came in. God I miss picking her up for a barrage of kisses whenever I came through the door, even if those kisses smelled like dog butt a lot of the time. Just the most loving creature in the world and someone who could put a huge smile on my face no matter the day I had.
We never knew Minnie's age since her original owners were such heartless morons; our best guess is she was 4-5 years old when we got her. For this reason we were always concerned with her kidneys any time something went wrong and she needed to see the vet. Had blood tests done about yearly and they all came back great until they didn't Sunday before last. |