Farewell, Good Girl!

Posted by Brennan on April 28th, 2008 filed in Furbaby Family

 

It has taken me a couple days to pull myself together enough to tell you about my beautiful furbaby granddaughter, Mai-Li, who passed peacefully in my arms on Saturday.

It’s really Mai-Li and her sisters and brother who are responsible for us even having Shepherd’s Haven. Whenever she got cranky about another kiddo getting into her favorite spot on the bed, I would tell her that she had only herself to blame. If she hadn’t been so adorable, we wouldn’t be crowding so many little bodies onto the king size beds.

Yes! Mai-Li is partly to “blame” for all the love and cuddles we get to share with our rescue babies.

But Mai-Li was not a rescue! Oh, no, she was one of the six grandbabies/littermates born in my bed.Let me tell you how it all happened!

Even though I had been rescuing dogs, cats and turtles since I was a little girl, I usually only had one, at most two, rescued animals at a time. Like any normal, sane person.

In 1992, I lost my beloved rescued Samoyed, Teddy Bear, after ten years and was grieving.

In an attempt to console me, My Darling Hubby, went to a pet store (GASP!) and purchased a Lhaso Apso. This was before we learned about the horrors of puppy mills!

The new puppy, whom we named Sasha Boots, helped me heal. She was such a joy, but she was so attached to me that she wouldn’t eat or drink during the long hours I was at work as a Critical Care nurse.

Brilliantly, we decided she needed a companion, so back to the pet store we went. (Still didn’t know the full statistics about puppymills and backyard breeders.)

Because we thought our Lhasa couple was so exceptional (as they truly are), we decided to breed Lhasas and become rich by selling the puppies. (Purebred Lhasa Apsos are very expensive dogs.)

What a GREAT PLAN! We could help other people know the joy of living with Lhasa Apsos AND we could be “wealthy DOG BREEDERS”. WooHoo!

The plan backfired!

We came home from work to find my beloved Sasha having her puppies in our bed (the big bed Don, I , Sasha & Kaz shared). Immediately after the birth of Sasha’s six puppies (Mai-Li, her four sisters and one brother), we transferred the new puppies to the new, snug and warm padded playpen that we had prepared for them. However, I instantly fell in love with my “grandchildren” and knew I could never let them go. Time for a DIFFERENT plan!

Since that day, we have learned more about irresponsible breeders, puppymills, animal rescue and the millions of animals that are killed each year because there are not enough homes for them. We have never regretted loving Mai-Li and the others too much to let them go, but we also learned the importance of spay/neuter and complied IMMEDIATELY! This is a lesson we stick to, even today!

Mai-Li, while just as famously stubborn as Lhasa’s are notorious for, stayed close by my side all through her life. She was so loving and sweet-natured that she even gave me a big kiss when (years ago) I cried after cutting her leg badly while I was learning to groom and remove mats from her fur. She was more concerned about me than about herself and it was a nasty cut. She got the required stitches, while I sobbed with guilt, yet never complained during her entire life, whenever I groomed her. She kept trusting me, even though I had hurt her when I first tried to groom on my own.

She was born in my bed 15 years ago and she died in my arms two days ago (9/29/2007). She was a Good Girl and I will miss her!

Be happy, Darling Baby Girl!
Mommy