by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

My Christmas gift from Jim this year was a puppy. When we went to pick her out, we were actually thinking of a different breed of puppy – a peek-a-pom, which is a Pomeranian/Pekingese mix. When we got to the breeder, however, we were captivated instead by a sweet-tempered, tiny Petit Brabancon, which is a type of Brussels Griffon. At five months, she only weighed 2.2 pounds.

What captivated us was her absolutely sweet disposition. She was a love from the minute we saw her.

We brought her home and named her Mia. As always when adopting a dog from a breeder, we had 72 hours to have the puppy evaluated by a vet. We were close to the 72 hours when we finally got Mia to the vet, but we made it within the specified time. Still, in that time, we’d already grown to love her. She is, without a doubt, the sweetest dog that we’ve ever had (and we love all of our dogs).

That’s why we were quite concerned when we got her to the vet, and the vet found a number of health problems – most likely associated with how tiny she is. She has a heart murmur. She also has a heart arrhythmia, an open fontanel and patellar subluxations. In short, there is a chance that she will not have a very long life – or that she may have a very medically expensive life.

We had a decision to make. Return her to the breeder — who would most likely put her down — or accept her with her health issues and all, knowing that she might not be with us for long or could wind up costing us a lot of money.

It was a no brainer for us.

Monkey or puppy? Sometimes its hard to tell.

You can’t help who or what you love. Individually, and as a family, we all decided that no matter how short or expensive her life might be, we would fill it with as much love as we possibly could. We didn’t really see that there was any other option, because we’d already chosen her and she’d already chosen us.

That’s how love is. When love chooses you, there are no guarantees that it will be cheap, and there are certainly no guarantees that who we love will be around forever – or even for very long. We can choose to go all-in and give it everything we have, or we can choose to hold ourselves back in hopes of avoiding pain. Whether we’re talking pets or people, holding back and avoiding pain seems to me to be no way to live. Life is about joy and love.

Although she’s only been with us for a few weeks so far, Mia has brought us both. She’s a sweet, bright, happy, energetic presence in our home – in spite of breaking her leg last week. She hasn’t let it stop her. She runs around at top speed, playing with the other dogs as if she was uninjured.

We’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Of course we hope that she will be with us for years to come. But we aren’t worrying about the pain that will come when she leaves us. Instead, we are making the most of every moment we have with her – whether that is for a 15 minutes or 15 years. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mia, pre-broken leg, in a quieter moment

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