Thursday, May 8, 2008

Remembering Mabel


We lost our sweet Mabel on 4/15/08 after a 14 month battle with chronic renal failure. She was small for a Basset, but her will to fight on despite all of her health problems was strong and she was a true inspiration to all who knew her. She was the sweetest dog you'd ever want to meet. Always a lady no matter the situation. We miss her terribly.

With this post, I'd like to celebrate her life with a few of my favorite "Mabel Stories."

It started the day I picked her up. I was so excited to be bringing my new girl home. I got her all set and comfortable on the back seat of the car and made sure I had locked her in securely, only to discover that in my excitement, I'd also locked my keys inside. The rescue folks and I tried everything to see if we could pry the windows down and get the car unlocked to no avail. We ended up calling the police to come and use their special tool to get the car door open. Mellow Miss Mabel slept contentedly the entire time, completely unaware of what a ditzy thing her new Mom had just done.

Probably my favorite Mabel remembrance was several years ago, a few days after Halloween. We had a bowlful of hard candy left over....lollipops, tootsie pops, blow pops, jolly ranchers...that sort of thing. Hubby and I went out for dinner thinking the candy bowl was far enough back on the counter, that neither Sophie nor Mabel could get it.

Wrong! When we returned home, my jaw dropped and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, when both dogs greeted us at the door completely covered in candy bits, wagging their tails proudly! I mean all over their faces, their ears, paws, bellies and even in their armpits and wrappers and lollipop sticks scattered from one end of the house to the other. Then, as I stood there in a total state of shock, Mabel waddled off to the living room and soon returned and placed one absolutely pristine Charms Blow Pop at my feet, then looked up at me as only Mabel could, with an expression that said, "I saved one for you, Mom." All I could do was cry and give her a great big hug.

Mabel's light shone bright for the time we were privileged to share with her, but the wonderful memories we have keeps her in our hearts until we meet again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very sweet Tribute! :)

Unknown said...

That story about that candy gave me a visual of two dogs covered in candy...hahahaha...so funny!!!
Thanks for the chuckle and sweet story...no pun intended!!

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