147. Miles

All of our pets have interesting stories. I thought I would tell Miles today.

Curtis and I were newly weds living in a small house in Encino. We had no children and had just lost another beloved dog, a golden retriever named Arthur. My sister Sarah came to spend the summer with us and I brought her to her friend Deanna's house for a play date. Deanna's mother, Caroline, raised australian shepherds. I mentioned that the breed was Curtis' favorite, but that we were morally against purchasing dogs. I was totally surprised when Caroline said she may have a dog for us. The last litter had produced some promising pups and the family decided to keep one for future breeding. He was almost a year old and had failed to grow to an ideal height considering the breed standards. Caroline had had him neutered and was thinking of finding a new home for him. We talked for a long time about our recently departed Arthur. I was still emotionally frail from losing Arthur and was afraid to get attached to another animal. She seemed to want to "try" out the placement to see if Miles would be a good fit for us.

About a week later she brought him to our house and dropped him off. We didn't hear from her for months and in those months feel completely in love with him. We called her many times to find out about medical records, recent immunizations, preferred foods, but she never returned one call. We went on with our lives. We had Miles groomed, shots given, started training...

Then all of a sudden in September she called and wanted him back. She would not listen to any reason and harassed us with one phone call after another. We even consulted a lawyer and were sure we were legally the owners. But after weeks of harassment, I finally mailed her a letter explaining the pain she was causing us, and Curtis brought Miles to her in sobbing tears. For the second time that year we had to live through the pain of losing an animal member of our family.

A few weeks went by. Our nephew Nicholas was born. I found out I was pregnant with Katie our first child. I contracted a terrible flu and was so sick that I couldn't make it to a good friends'wedding. Instead I stayed up most of the night coughing and finally feel asleep just before dawn. Moments later the phone rang and it was Caroline calling. It was 5:30 am. She was outside in our drive way with Miles. I opened the front door. She handed me the leash. She said, "Sorry" and nothing else. She drove away and we never saw or heard from her again. We were so thankful to have him back. That was almost 11 years ago.

Today, our dear Miles passed from cancer. May he rest in peace.