The Emancipation of Mimi

In memory of our beloved Mimi:

No, this post isn't about Mariah Carey's new album with the same title. It's all about Mimi. Mimi is our 6 year old Miniature Daschund. She passed away on Sunday, June 4, 2006.

The Emancipation of Mimi is all about her being set free from the pain she was suffering through the last few months of her life. Mimi was blind and was having 4 - 5 seizures a day.

It all started when we took her to a local vet's office to get a teeth cleaning. We were afraid that she could develop an infection from all the gunk built up on and in between her teeth. Her breath was pretty foul, but even so we let her get up close to our faces to say hello. Shad had a loose tooth as well, so that needed to be extracted.

We took her in and got her back and she was never the same since. She came home and seemed to be recovering from the anesthetic they gave her. She seemed dizzy and couldn't focus on objects very well.

A couple days had passed and we noticed that she was having more and more trouble seeing things. Mind you, this is a dog that could catch a snack in mid-air or track a ball down like the way a hawk swoops down to snatch its prey. We called the vet and they said to bring her back in. Their ingenious test to check for blindness was to take her out into the light and say, "yep, her pupils are dilated and won't constrict." After the visit to Dr. Obvious, we took her to our primary vet who said we should see a specialist.

We began treating Mimi with some holistic treatments in the attempt to help her overcome whatever it was that she was dealing with. She began having seizures and the number of seizures increased with each passing day. The ophthalmologist examined her and found that her eyes were perfectly healthy, so we were told to take her to a neurologist. We took her to our primary vet again to get a full blood panel and to get something to help with the ever increasing seizures.

Unfortunately, Mimi passed away before we could ever get any test results to find out what else we could do for her. She began having consistent seizures, one after the other and her body decided it had had enough. We got her to an emergency hospital and the vet told us she had begun to go into cardiac arrest. We were allowed to be with her and she was gone.

Mimi is finally free of the pain and suffering she was going through. I think she decided to spare us from all the pain we were feeling seeing her go through it. She always came to us for comfort and in the end she sought comfort for us. It is not easy to let her go, but we knew it was best for her. She will be missed tremendously, but never forgotten.

Mimi came into our home as a tiny little thing, no bigger than the palm of my hand. She had quite the attitude and was the alpha dog no matter how many dogs were around or how big they were...ask the dogs at the dog park...or our 2 Rotties that always took orders from her. Mimi will always be with us and we are thankful for the time we got to share with her.

Here are a few pictures of her from the last year or so:

Baron, Kira & Rosco miss you too. We will always have our memories of you and the silly things you used to do. You were a beggar and a user, but we always gave in and let you clean off a plate or two. You always loved it when Grandma came over, because you knew you would get even more treats and people food. You even showed Grandma where the treat jar had been moved to. You went on trips with us and Momma took you everywhere with her...even into stores and restaurants tucked in her purse. We had a lot of fun playing with the squeaky ball and the feather duster. Rest now and we will take comfort knowing that your suffering is all over.

WE LOVE YOU MIMI....