November 24, 2022 eblast:
Do you remember the story of The Velveteen Rabbit?
A little stuffed
rabbit that wanted to be REAL.
That's
how we'll remember Velvet.
She
was our Christmas Miracle 2018.
She'd been found as a stray but there were suspicions the person who "found" her was actually her owner.
And so the wonderful staff at the Humane Society of
Durham Region named her Myrtle (fitting for an old girl of approximately 12 years old, we suppose) and went about fixing her
up as best they could. They removed a mammary mass with a high probability for malignancy, removed most of her decaying teeth
as they were practically falling out, and spayed her.
That's when they reached out to us,
"Our Myrtle is now looking for a nice warm home where she can spend the rest of her time HAPPY
and comfortable."
She did more than that, I assure you.
(Right after we gave her a more Christmas-y Name!)
From trips to the East Coast, to Yoga Class workouts, to tiptoeing through the
tulips at High Park.
Velvet
did it all.
But
not without challenges.
Eventually, our tough little cookie lost both her eyes due to painful pressure we could not control.
She struggled with many other health
issues too, making her a "Regular" at Dundas West Animal Hospital.
She had so many fans at the clinic.
Speaking of Fans, Velvet really did have her own FB Fan Club!
Folks love "Cute and Determined",
don't you know.
Folks
LOVED Velvet.
And
always will.
Even when she became threadbare and lost her button eyes.
A Passage from The Velveteen Rabbit…
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse.
“It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY
loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful.
“When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked,
“or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time.
That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully
kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose
in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly,
except to people who don’t understand.”
We understood, Velvet.
And we loved you to the Moon and Back and always will.
We lost Velvet last night due to health complications.
But
rest assured, she was surrounded by LOVE.
This is the Velvet we will remember.
The Velvet with sand on her tongue and a smile on her face.
Oh, the Adventures she had…our Velveteen Beagle made REAL with LOVE!
4 years packed with beautiful memories.
Our
thanks to the Humane Society of Durham Region for saving Velvet first.
And to our Calendar Designer Ben and his
wife Catherine for giving Velvet her first Christmas with us.
And to the incredible staff at Dundas Animal
Hospital for always rolling out the red carpet for our Superstar and giving her the best darned care a Princess like Velvet
could have ever asked for.
And MOST IMPORTANT, Our Thanks to Velvet's FAMILY --- Andre, Hyedie
(and beagle sister, Phoebe!)
for making her REAL from nose to tail these last 4 years!
Please light a Candle
for Velvet tonight and for her FAMILY who are missing her more than words can describe.
