Miggs

Since I have been writing about animals ( many titles and no content) that have been in the family, I thought I would write this time about Miggs. Miggs was a miniature Boston Terrier. He was a purebred with papers from the American Kennel Club. His full name was Jeff's Mister Miggs. The only person I ever remember calling him Mister Miggs was Tammy Painter who lived across the street and was about 5 or 6 at the time. She would often ring my doorbell and ask if Mister Miggs could come out to play. She enjoyed that little dog. I thought Miggs was a regular sized dog until I had him at the vet's and a couple from Dugway came in with their Boston Terrier and thought that Miggs was a pup. Their dog was big enough to make two of Miggs (he only weighed 15 pounds). He was a special little dog. I could pick him up and put him under my arm or in the basket on my bicycle. He would lay on his back next to me in the car and was adopted by Marge and Si's boxers. They treated him like he was one of their pups. When we traveled back east on vacations we would take two and one half dogs. The two boxers as full dogs and Miggs as the half dog. We would put pillows on the back seat of the car and Miggs would sit on top of them just like a king so that he could see everywhere. When people came to the house to visit, I would sit on the couch and he would get on my lap and dare any of them to come close. I guess he was trying to be the big watchdog protector. As he got older, he developed asthma and had a difficult time breathing through his short little nose. He also started to get stiff joints which the vet said was the starting of arthritis. He would have a dificult time getting up the steps by himself, so I would carry him when the going got tough. He finally got to the point where he couldn't eat much without getting sick. The only thing that he could keep down was crushed candy canes. It was so hard to see him suffer and I could see what looked like tears in his eyes which would make me cry. I decided that I simply couldn't watch him suffer any longer, so Marge and I took him to the vet to be put to sleep. It was really hard to stand and watch that sweet little friend stop breathing and leave us. I cried for days. It was just like losing one of the family. The best consolation was that I had another little dog at home to take his place, but that will come in another story.