Mya

Mya

2003 - 2014

In the early spring of 2004, Wendy came to me with a section of the newspaper that advertised “Free to a Good Home" Golden Retriever. Having a male Golden, Zach, for the past five years, Wendy felt he was in need of a younger companion. Five families had responded to the advertisement and were each interviewed and introduced to Mya. During this introduction Zach and Mya instantly became playmates. Later that day, much to Zach, Wendy and my delight, Mya joined our Elgin family.

Mya came to us an eight month old with no medical history. Wanting to give her the proper care we took her to the vet where the vet promptly gave Mya all the vaccination an eight month old dog should have had by then. As we came to find out, this was a huge mistake. A day or two after the vaccinations, Mya became very ill. A return trip to the vet and a three day hospital stay with an IV provided no clue as to why she was so ill. The vet felt she was doing better and that we could take her home. $1500 and four hours later we were back on the phone with the vet. Mya was literally at death's front door, again. After a referral to a specialist who recommends a spinal tap to determine if Mya had Meningitis. The test was positive and she was sent home with a $1000 bill and a prescription for steroids, which brought her back from the brink. Six months later she had a relapse. By this time we had changed vets and he determined that Mya's immune system was unable to fight the vaccinations, possibly because she had gotten the shots prior to and again after coming to us. Another round of steroids and she was fine.

Another event in Mya's life, much to my fault, involved Mya vs a school bus van. Mya would always come when called. She would come at her own sweet time or right away whatever suits her but she did come so I felt confident in having her off leash. While at an off leash park, Mya found a dead animal in the middle of a busy highway to her liking .

 While I was busy loading Zach into the car I heard screeching tires and car horns. Looking up I see Mya running towards me with an expression and body language that said “I'm in so much trouble and I'm so happy to see you” at the same time. As it turned out the school bus van had struck her in the left hind quarter, dislocating the leg from the hip joint. After $2500 surgery and a two month recovery she could once again run like the wind.

I had an interest in training Mya to be a Therapy Dog and after filling out all the necessary paper work we attended the Fox Valley Dog Training Club classes and testing where she became a Certified Therapy Dog. We visited the Green Acres, an assisted living home, Rosewood Nursing home, and St. Joseph Hospital.

 Mya was a good Therapy dog, not a great one but she did make several people very happy from her visits. Some residents we would visit she would unfortunately show little interest in. I could see this was not working and rather than risking hurting anymore feelings we took the good visits / experiences as a win and moved on.

Returning home last Saturday afternoon from an As Good As Gold Home Visit with Payton and Mya I noticed Mya seemed to be panting hard. By the time we got home she was having labored breathing and salivating a great deal so I took her to the Dundee Animal Hospital. As I carried her into the hospital and was explaining to the receptionist what I believed was wrong I could feel the life in her slipping away. “I think she is dying in my arms”. I explained.  Mya was taken to the back room where the doctor confirmed she had stopped breathing, no pulse and that heart had an arrhythmia. Shortly thereafter the heart stopped and she had passed away.

Looking back, having her die while holding her in my arms was a gift. Much like she was to Wendy, Payton, Zach and I.

We shall miss our "free" Golden Girl Mya, very much.