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Old May 19th, 2006, 02:32 PM
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twomunchie twomunchie is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Washington
Posts: 13
The power of love!

On the third evening of a winter snow storm, February 2003 (accumulating 20 inches total,) I had cabin fever and dialed a friend who owned a 4-wheel drive to see if she would dare to venture out and drive us to town for a movie. She was delighted with the idea.

The main roads had been scrape. The country lane I live down was tretcherous to say the least. She made it easily to my house and off we went to town. About 3/4's mile from my house, we saw a dog standing beside the road. The look of her whole being said, "help me please, I am lost." Thinking that maybe she was owned by a near-by neighbor and was let out to do her nightly business, we continued toward town. I said to my friend that, if she is still there when we got back, I would pick her up and take her home.

On our return three hours later, she was still standing under the pine tree beside the road. With a couple more inches of snow on her back, I don't think she had moved an inch. We stopped and picked her up.

Once home, I dried her off as best I could and wrapped her in a blanket holding on to her frozen body. As her body started to warm up, she started having seizures...scared me half to death as I thought, surely, she would croak right there in my arms.

After 15 to 20 minutes, the seizures subsided. I left out a small amount of food and fresh warm water and went to sleep with her wrapped in a blanket beside my bed.

Amazingly, she woke me up early the next morning, wagging her tail, looking for more food. The food dish was empty. By noon, the snow had stopped and my country lane was, finally, plowed. My Corgi, Two Socks, took to this sad little dog instantly. We piled into my car and headed to my vets office as I wanted to have her checked out for frostbite or other problems. Also, to see if anybody recognized her so that I might return her home. No one at the office recognised her. During the exam, the vet said that she was ancient, she had no teeth, she was blind in both eyes and deaf in both ears. Other than that, she was healthy.

For the next two weeks, I scoured the neighborhood to see if anyone recognized her. No one did. I took her to different vets and rescue shelters in the area but to no avail. Over the next eight months, Two Socks and I enjoyed and admired (now named) Migety's love, courage, and stamina.

Every morning when walking to the barn, Migety would follow right along beside us. There was such a joy about her...the way she bound through the pasture. At other times, she seemed bewildered and lost...like she was, desparately, missing something or someone.

Over the next couple of days, boarders at the barn said that they had seen her beside the road for three days. I was amazed that this ancient dog had survived three days in a howling winter storm. Also, wondered why one of them had not stopped to help her out. Unfortunately, that is life at it's worst.

About four months later, I was riding a horse in the indoor arena. Beside the arena is a paddock into which a horse had just been turned out. Migety had wondered into the paddock and I saw the horse run over to her. Within a moment's time, the horse started rearing up stomping and stricking Migety on her head and back. I screamed bloody murder, jumped off my horse, jumped the arena wall and flew to the paddock to rescue what I surely thought, this time, would be a mortally wounded dog.

When I got her outside of the paddock, she lay there for a few moments, then got up and trotted off as if nothing had happened. After that incident, I started calling her My Angel Puppy, as it seemed miraculous to me that this ancient dog could survive not only three days in a winter storm but a horse stomping to boot.

A few months after that, the mother of one of my students watched a boarder backing her car out of the barn parking lot, one tire backing over Migety's pelvis and hind legs. Migety got up, walk on like nothing had happened. Truely amazing! There was, definately, something extra special about this little dog.

In August, I went home to Virginia for two weeks for a family reunion leaving Two Socks and Migety in the care of friends. When I returned Migety was gone. I was in a panic until a boarder told me that a new boarder renting a stall while I was gone had recognize Migety as belonging to a person named Lucy who live about 300 yards through a thicket of woods from my front door. A home, I didn't know existed (the lane to her home was about a mile down the main road from my country lane) until Two Socks and I visited her that day. Lucy was Phillipino, was as ancient as Migety, had married an American soldier during WWII. At first, I felt angry that someone had just taken Migety without my knowing. That was only until I met Lucy and heard the story of "Mitzy."

Lucy had gotten Mitzy from a rescue shelter 20 years ago. Mitzy was, approximately, two years old when they rescued her. Lucy was so happy to have her back. She hugged and thank me over and over for taking care of her. They'd searched everywhere for her and had, grieviously, decided that coyotes must have killed her. (I'm guessing Mitzy suffered a small stroke the night of the snow storm and could not find her way back home, or it could be that her sense of smell, one of the few senses she had left, was lessened by the snow on the ground.) They had been heart broken as you can imagine.

Two Socks and I visited Mitzy and Lucy nearly every day. It was wonderous to see Mitzy with Lucy. She no longer had that far-away look of desparate longing in her eye. In late September, Mitzy had (we assume) a stroke and was totally incapacitated. I told Lucy that I would pay for a veterinary visit, but she said no that she wanted it this way. Over the next couple of weeks, Lucy fed Mitzy chicken and beef broth via a turkey baster. She was not in pain and seemed to rest in perfect bliss. On Oct. 7th (my birthday,) Mitzy died, quietly, in Lucy's arms. Over the years, I have thought so often about Mitzy and Lucy. I know, now, that Mitzy was not going to let one single thing take her from this earth until she was home. There-in lies the power of love of a little mutt of a dog who was not about to leave this world until she was home...home at last with Lucy!
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twomunchie

Last edited by twomunchie; May 25th, 2006 at 02:39 PM. Reason: added paragraphs for easier reading
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