In Memory Of Mugsey The Golden Labrador Retriever

This is a tribute to Mugsey, he was so much a part of my old blog and so much a part of the family he deserves  a page as he will always have a place in our hearts.  Mugsey was about 2 1/2 years old, we live by a highway but the house is 300 yards away from the highway and the dogs never go there.  I was gone to my grandkids and my group birthday with my other daugther when Mugsey disappeared, we couldn’t find him in the night.  When we got up he was sitting by my car somehow, his back legs were paralyzed, he’d rolled under a car.  We wondered if someone didn’t try to steal him and he got away.  That’s just as plausible an explanation as he wandered in a highway after 2 years of not going near it?  I took him to the vet, we cried for almost a week, he was put to sleep July 30,2009.  This is Mugseys story told through two old posts.

Hi, my name is Mugsey, my mama is typing this for me, my paws are much too big. This is my baby picture. Mama says I looked so much like Marley it wasn’t even funny, they hadn’t made the movie yet, this was in the spring of 2007. Now everyone says I’m a Marley lookalike or look alike however you want to say it. This picture was taken about 5 minutes after she brought me in the door. Daddy said something about a yellow puppy although he kept telling mama they couldn’t have another dog, especially living in a camper cleaning up after Katrina. Somehow Daddy relaxed his rules for me? There’s a commercial on about some of these mugs may have bugs but there aint no bugs on me. Mama said I looked like the dog on the commercial so that was my name, Mugsey. Makes me sound rather tough don’t ya think?
I have a “big” brother, his name is Dispatch, here he is on the bed, I think he’s just about the best thing besides bones. He started to play with me a couple weeks after I came to live with them. The first two weeks were rough though. See Dispatch still has all his tail hair?

Dispatch liked to play pulley pulley with me, I soon learned to rip all the toys to shreds. Mama won’t let me have any more except one expensive stuffed dog that I haven’t destroyed because it’s too well made. The face is gone though? I’ll get it chewed up soon and then she will have to buy new ones. BTW there’s a video of me howling with Dispatch about this age if you want to click on the videos  (youtube howling bichon and lab?)

Mama was cleaning out a camper they had in storage on a horse farm for one of my human brothers who worked for my Daddy. Dispatch told me he could make the horse eat me. It didn’t but I wasn’t taking any chances.
Soon after this we came back to Missouri, I was born in Mississippi under a storage container. Daddy said they rescued me. Mama reminds him I was in the air conditioned house with the kids when they “rescued” me. My doggie mama was a golden retriever and my doggie daddy was a huge black Labrador. I got my size more from my doggie mama but I’m still trying to grow! When we came back to Missouri we lived on something called a farm and I could go without a leash (what a relief) and there was another old grouchy dog named Skeeter. She’s now one of my best friends but boy was she grouchy @ first. As you can see by the picture below I got most of Dispatches tail hair pulled out by early fall. It was such a fun handle, I’d grab him by it and he would growl and mama would yell, sometimes I even tried to pull him by it but Dispach is a fierce warrior under that fluffy white hair. We were playing here, Dispatch does something called a Bichon Blitz but I think he just goes nuts and thinks he’s faster than me?

Mama said I was too big for Dispatch’s bed and put it up on a table so I couldn’t get it because I sort of liked to chew it too. Daddy came home and I had to show him I could still fit in the bed. I don’t know what Mama is talking about sometimes?
All of this required I sleep. Mama doesn’t like me sleeping in this chair much, I have a chair in the family room I can sleep in but she gets really loud when I take my naps in the living room?

I tried to shield Dispatch when Mama dressed him up in a tutu from Sara my human niece, she tastes good most of the time when I lick her. Anyway mama remembered the tutu she had made for Sara’s first Halloween and dressed poor Dispatch in it. I was a little jealous but I really didn’t want my own tutu.

Later I learned about ice and how it was wise just to lay down and not try to walk sometimes. I was tired after all this and had to sleep some more.

I learned to watch for Daddy when he was outside. See how I am camouflaged in the jungle tree? Mama says pay no attention to the unfinished window sill, she is just glad to have a wall and have sheet rock up, this used to be a garage door before I came around Dispatch said.I am guarding continuously, sometime I must hide if the danger gets too close though. Mama says I’m not nearly as dumb as she thought I was. I had an accident in the house when Mama was really tired and didn’t let me outside in the middle of the night. She didn’t find it till she had let me out the next morning but I knew she would be mad so I tried to go live with my best friend Fema who lives down the hill, Fema’s mama is my mamas best friend and Fema is a miniature schnauzer, sometimes the schnauzer across the road comes to visit too and we all play in the front lawn. Nothing will attack then because of all 5 fierce dogs guarding the place huh?

All of this guarding and talking about it has made me tired, I have to sleep again.
I have found out that a warm human is the best thing to sleep by on a lazy Sunday morning, this is Jacob my human nephew, Jacob is good to me and feeds me human food too. We are watching a dog show on PBS, well Jacob and Dispatch are, I’m trying to catch a few zzzz’s which doesn’t sound like a bad idea. See Dispatch’s tail hair did grow back!! I’m really not a bad dog. I wrote this  below after I got home from the vets, I can’t write anymore without crying even though it’s September now.
I was with Mugsey this morning @ 10:15 when he was put to sleep. He was worse. I asked the vet about other treatments but he said there was no hope, if it was his dog he would have him put to sleep. The vet had taken Mugsey to his HOUSE to put him in the hot tub twice because he thought that might do some good and would help him be more comfortable @ least. The vet shed a tear too. He said a cart was an option but I knew Mugsey wouldn’t be happy and he was incontinent and just miserable.
Mugsey was fine, not scared, the medication made him shakey. He wasn’t as good though as when I took him in. You never realize how much of your life is tied up in an animal till you lose them. I complained about him flopping over and hitting the box springs on the bed from the floor every night and jarring me awake. I would love to feel that again. I petted him for like 20 minutes before the vet got there and every time I would stand up from crouching down he would try to stand up to go with me. That was the worst I think.

I am fine. I’ve talked to my husband several times today. We are getting Mugsey’s ashes back and scattering them over the farm where he loved to run (husband insisted even though it costs more and husband is shall we say thrifty). I hugged the vet and I am NOT a hugger. The vet tried to give me a beagle that was throwing a fit because she didn’t like being cooped up and tried to give me a white lab that someone had dumped by his house pregnant last winter. My husband said he wants a puppy IF we get another dog soon. I can’t hardly bear the thought but I know there are 1000’s of puppies that need homes.

I’ll never forget when we got Mugsey I was delivering lunch to the crew when they were cleaning up after Katrina. My stepson said what about the yellow puppy when I got there, I said what yellow puppy, I saw him and that’s all she wrote, my husband fell in love instantly too, he’s the one that suggested I look @ him to his son. Mugsey turned into a sweet lovable clown that got in trouble quite frequently but we learned to adapt. When he wasn’t doing his jumping running dance of joy around the car when I got home I thought something was wrong. I wish I’d petted him more and given him more treats. I got a garbage bag out and saw a cabinet with big dog treats in it and no big dog.

I think I feel guilty because I didn’t always put Mugsey first after he was grown, but he liked to be outside and he came in when we were home, he would get in trouble for chasing cats and dragging things in the yard, his pile of treasures just disappeared recently, rocks, sticks, bones, and empty plastic bottles. He was my husbands dog too but he only had him overnight by himself once, he’s been with me the rest of the time. I feel bad too because it was my husbands dog (supposedly) and my dog (Dispatch) is fat sassy and healthy. I’ve got more pictures of Mugsey than any other dog besides Dispatch and I’ve had 3 times as long to take pictures of Dispatch. I’ve cried more for Mugsey than I ever have any other dog too (and most people who have died), but usually if they are killed or die it’s quick. I feel bad because I didn’t buy him more stuffed animals to destroy, he loved nothing better than to chew a hole in a stuffed animal and start pulling stuffing out, would keep him occupied for hours.   He was a sweet dog is what everyone said, I had many offers to adopt him if we didn’t want him.  Maybe kidnap is a better word?

September 2009,

Dispatch was puzzled for days, he would stare out the window and Fema (Mugseys playmate, neighbor dog) would lay outside looking in the window, they were both waiting for Mugsey.  Dispatch also saw a lab down here that could be a twin to a young Mugsey, the dog was vicious?  Dispatch ignored that, he looked like MUGSEY!  So I know he still remembers him.   We sort of adopted a stray hound, I think the manager of the resort we have our 5th wheel @ has her in a pen now.  I’ve looked on petfinder but for the time being we haven’t gotten another dog and we are healing although if you meet me on the street and start talking about dogs I will probably tell you about  Mugsey.