Yesterday morning, my family said goodbye to our maltese Missy.

My sweet Missy Girl has been all over this blog since it started. When I was in high school, I volunteered at our local animal shelter. Like any teenage girl, it wasn’t too long before I brought one of the rescue dogs home. Her name was Mitzy, a 7-year-old Maltese. I tried and tried to change her name to “Lila” but seven-year-olds don’t adapt so easily to a name change. We started calling her “Missy” because it was similar enough to Mitzy, and she joined our family for the past five and a half years.

When I went off to college, she bonded immediately with my mom. Missy became pretty jealous any time I would come home to visit or stay for the summer. I was taking up too much attention for her liking!

Missy was our perfect family dog because Maltese are hypo-allergenic and don’t shed. She was perfectly content sprawling out in her bed or lounging with me when I was home recovering from surgeries. She joined us on weekend trips to San Diego, Northern California, and even snowy Flagstaff.

We knew she was aging when her rambunxious bursts of energy and laps around the house stopped, and her sight started to weaken. But so suddenly on Tuesday evening, she seemed to just shut down. My mom made the difficult decision to give Missy peace and have her put to sleep on Wednesday morning.

Missy girl will be so missed and we are so grateful to have gotten to spend the last five years of her life with her. She was brought to the animal shelter at just the right time. I hope there are plenty of carrots in heaven. <3