Millie

When my mum passed away in 2006, I was devastated. I missed her being around the house because for the last 6 months of her life she lived with me. She left a large hole in my life that I will never be able to fill. But time eases the pain and the children appeared to get over mum’s absence much quicker than the rest of the family.

Exactly 6 weeks later, after listening to the children, mostly the girls, continually asking for a puppy, I caved in to their request. One of our friends told us there was a family who were giving away 6 week old puppies to good homes and so against my still temperamental judgement, I agreed to go along to the house and at least take a look at the puppies.

There was 3 puppies left, all yapping around their relaxing mother, and one of the puppies caught my eye, she was a bitch, and looked at us, and stole our hearts. We took her home with us, with the girls cooing in the back seat whilst they cuddled the puppy. It was the beginning of summer, and whilst the children were at school, the puppy would spend all of her time in the garden with me, running around, playing and never leaving my side. On the day we bought her she got up to some very amusing shenanigans, and one of the family (Can’t remember who) suggested we call her Millie because of the way she ambled around the room, rarely leaving my side. I should explain that Millie was a nickname given to my mum by the next door neighbours during the years I was growing up. I was never privy to the reason they called my mum Millie, but the name stuck. Mum would always amble around before she became wheelchair bound, and often blurted out funny, off the cuff statements and did quirky things that gave her a naturally entertaining personality. Millie the puppy seemingly had the same quirky personality.

So, Millie it was and she didn’t leave my side. We jokingly worked out that on the day my mum passed away, Millie was born, so the joke was the puppy was a reincarnation of mum. Millie was black and tan, made up of a variety of breeds (Mum must have been easy!)  Predominantly, so the vet told us, she was mainly a mixture of Rottweiler, Lurcher and Retriever. She had a big head, stocky but muscular with very long legs and we loved her instantly.

There is so much to say about how she effected my life and happy she was when she was alive, so i’ll leave that for another time.