My best old girl and her cat.

If you’re an animal lover, get some tissues.

April was hard. We’ve been managing Magnolia’s mast cell cancer since 2021. Three surgeries and daily meds. We only biopsied the first mass, which came back with results that gave her a two year median survival rate. She was just 9 at the time and I selfishly buried my face in her neck and asked her to get me through the last of the teenagers. It’s long been a joke of mine that everyone who has teenagers needs a dog – that way someone is always happy to see you. When she had her last surgery I asked our vet if he still thought I was doing it for her, and not just me. “Yes, definitely,” he assured me. And she kept keeping on, this girl of mine. 4 years after the diagnosis, as the tumors began to return, we opted for meds and no more surgeries. And still she made it another year, to the surprise of us all! Her vision was mostly gone, she couldn’t hear, her lumpy old body a miracle all its own….. that hound nose was perfectly operating though! A week before she left us she brought me the grossest deer leg she had found in the woods. Ha! (I’ll save that photo for myself)

Oh, this dog you guys! I know everyone says they have the best dog, but she was truly special. She charmed everyone she met. She had the entire veterinary office wrapped around her paw. A gentle stubborn sensitive girl. My absolute soul dog. The best thing of all? She picked us. Magnolia was a stray that showed up in our yard in Louisiana and when we couldn’t find her owner, we kept her. She loved everyone but I was “her” human. The kids said she was more like having a bossy Aunt live with you than a dog, she was too smart and opinionated to be just a dog they said.

Over the winter, I noticed she was having trouble getting comfortable more often and she slowly became my shadow. Even though I knew it was coming, my heart broke when the vet said it was time. We picked a day. Our vet gave us the contact of a service that comes to your house. She was spoiled rotten for her last days, even Mother Nature said farewell with a gift of unseasonably warm weather so she could soak up her beloved sunshine. The morning we said goodbye, spring returned with a soft snowy day and we sat in the living room in front a cozy fire to say farewell. We buried our girl here on the farm while snowflakes swirled around us. I told myself the sun was escorting her to the place where all the good dogs go. I wrapped her in one of first quilts I had made and Jade and I picked every daffodil in the yard and laid them on her.

Rest easy big girl, we love you so much. Thank you again for picking us.

xo~

S

ps – our youngest turns twenty this summer, she got me through after all.