Recently, I wrote about some of the pets I’ve had in my life and mentioned a little dog I had while growing up. Her name was Mitzi.
The other day, as I was taking a step back in time and just reflecting a bit, I got to thinking more about her.
I was around 8 when my parents got Mitzi for me, a little mixed terrier who really was sweet but could be feisty when she wanted to be.
I ran across some old photos of her recently where she was sleeping with me. Seemed like she was always by my side. She was such a good little companion.
She had several litters of puppies and always took such great care of them. I was the only one she would let near them when they were young, other than my parents.
The pups were off limits to my younger brother and sister until time for weaning.
Mitzi lived to be about 17 years old. I was gone from home by the time my parents had to put her to sleep.
Mitzi always slept with me until we moved into a two-story house late in my senior year of high school. With her getting older and having to climb the stairs, it was just hard on those little legs of hers.
Mitzi weighed all of 9 or 10 pounds. She thought she was a whole lot tougher than she probably was, but she did have a growl and bark that could quickly get your attention. She was really good with kids and adults, too. And never once did I see her try to bite anyone she knew or that she believed wasn’t a threat to her.
There was at least one person she didn’t like or care for at all. Not sure why that was, but she somehow made a believer of the postman. Not sure if it was a particular postman or not.
We might go a week or more at a time and not receive our mail. Then, we would receive this bundle of mail with a note attached that read, “couldn’t deliver mail, bad dog on porch.”
I thought, you’ve got to be kidding me. How can this little black and white mutt be keeping the mail from being delivered? Obviously, she made quite an impression on the postal carrier or carriers.
We laughed the first time she scared the neighbor’s Doberman out of the front yard.
He was a big male and why he ran from her no one really knows.
We had a fenced backyard, but she was a house dog for sure, only going out as needed and as she wanted.
We have photos of her sitting up as she would beg us for whatever we would be eating at a meal.
She was just a little companion. She loved to go in the car. She was the type of dog every kid ought to have growing up. If I have one regret, it was not spending more time with her as during my high school years.