She really was a Miracle

It is with love and deep sorrow that we announce the loss of our beloved miracle dog, our black and tan Norfolk Terrier, Miracle. She was 15 years, 3 months when she passed, and she was never, ever expected to live that long.

Miracle was born to my Champion Norfolk Terrier, Tenterra California Girl. She was born by c-section, along with her red brother, who died after about 30 minutes. We could not get her to latch on, and the vet hospital finally told us we had to take her and her mom home as they were closing. Within 30 minutes of getting her home, Cali, her mom, (unbeknownst to us, was suffering from eclampsia), picked up her puppy to carry her to a safe spot in the box. Her bite was too hard and there were now four puncture wounds in the less-than-two-hour-old pup. We immediately rushed mom and baby to the emergency vet. They were swamped, told us to take Cali home and they would care for the pup. The ER was swamped, the pup had not eaten anything yet, and I was beside myself. All my husband and I could do was take Cali home and pray. We stayed up that night watching our beloved SF Giants win their second playoff game on the way to winning the world series for the first time since moving to SF in 1956. Thank God for the distraction. As the game ended and we went to bed, I remember saying to my husband, Tim, that it looks like we just lost the whole litter.

In the morning, I got a call from the vet saying, “Come get your puppy!” She was alive, had decided to eat, and now we needed to feed her by hand, while also letting her nurse a bit from her mom since Cali’s milk had finally come in. We spent the next five weeks giving her hourly feedings, weighing her and making sure she got antibiotics as the puncture wounds were near her abdominal cavity, and she was too small to suture anything. We named her Wisdom’s Gate Fall Classic Miracle.

All went well until her poop started to be green. Emerald green. I knew her liver was compromised by the antibiotics, so I stopped them and again prayed. She was about 4 weeks old, beginning to toddle around, so I began to trust her a bit more with her mom. Then, it happened again. Cali tried picking her up and again broke the skin in 2 places. Sigh. Another round of antibiotics and a complete workup for mom, who we finally spayed later in the year. I looked at Tim and said, “Well, this is a pup I will need to keep as we have no idea how all of this will impact her health as she grows.” So, she became our furry daughter. We already had 3 dogs, so it was a real commitment.

We taught her how to be in the show ring, and she did very well, despite her long tail and full set of dewclaws. When she got her first major points in the show ring, I decided to check her heart as she was over a year old and I wanted a baseline. And darned if she did not have a soft murmur, only able to be detected on Color-Doppler Echocardiogram. In those days, any heart murmur was to be taken out of a breeding program, so I retired her and spayed her. Knowing what I know now, I might not have made that decision.

Years went by and we followed much of her lead. She really did not know she was a dog, you see. She was a furry kid.

Fast forward now, she lived an amazing life, and we learned so much from her. She ran the house, and us, and until the day she passed, was bossy. We loved her for that. When she turned 14 years old, Tim and I dedicated any time we had remaining with her to making sure we cherished her every day, and cherished us as a family with her. That year was a magical year, as we learned that the present is all that counts. The past is no longer with us, and the future is unknown and may never happen. We learned to celebrate the present with her. What a gift.

Miracle has inspired more than one article. If you’d like to read another, The Gift of Aging.