This is not my personal blog space but since I do not have a personal blog, only this business blog, I want to give some space to honor a family member ... our almost 19 year old dog, Mika.
It is time to say goodbye. For any of you who have had to make this decision, you know how hard it is. But it has come to the place where she is no longer able to walk without support. We carry her in and out of the house. And the last couple of days she has even needed help in finding her food and water ... she still loves to eat! (even though she has lost a lot of weight). Mika is my daughter's dog and yesterday she told me that she knew it was time to let Mika go. She will call the vet this morning to make arrangements.
We adopted Mika from our local animal shelter when she was just a few weeks old. Some might say that we rescued her but in reality she rescued us. My daughter was only 6 years old and had just been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. We didn't even understand what that disease was ... and everything that we were learning about it was terrifying. We were even told that Kellisa's life expectancy would only be 21 years (which was true at that time). So we decided that this would be the perfect time to bring something good into our lives ... and what is better than a new puppy! The same day that we brought Mika home we got a call from Kellisa's new CF doctors to say that she had to go into the hospital for her first CF "tune-up" (that's two or three weeks in a hospital on intravenouos drip feed antibiotics). Since she was only 6 years old I stayed with her 24/7 at the hospital for the entire two weeks. That meant that her new puppy was in the house all day with our other dog, Bo, while my husband was at work. Guess what... no, they did not destroy the house as we expected. They were perfect and never made a mess. A "sign" that we had chosen a wonderful new member of our family.
In many ways Mika proved herself to be extraordinary. Two years later we were offered another puppy. This puppy needed an immediate home because her breeder thought that no one would want a miniature poodle with a handicap ... she was born without eyes. Of course, we took her into our home. To our surprise Mika immediately became her guide-dog. When we put our blind puppy, Tawnie, in our backyard we saw that Mika would give her one end of a stick to hold and with Mika holding the other end she could guide Tawnie back into the house. And Mika keep guiding her until Tawnie learned her own way around the backyard.
Mika also had the heart of a "hero". Every time our smoke alarm would go off (usually because of my poor cooking skills or a low battery) Mika would go into her rescue mode. She would run into my daughter's room and if she was asleep she would bark and shake the bed until my daughter woke up. And then Mika would not leave her alone until my daughter would run out of the house with her. This went on for years ... so whenever the smoke alarm would go off, for whatever reason, my daughter knew that she had to let Mika "rescue" her. Mika has the heart of a hero without a doubt.
Mika is not a pet ... she is a much loved family member ... who will be deeply missed. Thank you, Mika, for all the love you have given my family for so many years. We were truly blessed to have you in our lives.
