10/03/2026
Rest In Peace Minnie ❤️
From her family:
Minnie’s Eulogy 11/94/2020 – 9/22/2026
Dog is such a small word for something that takes up so much room in your heart. — Leigh Standley, artist and owner of
Curly Girl Design
Today I lost a piece of my soul and a loving companion. After ten months of bravely fighting, Minnie lost her battle with lymphoma this afternoon and crossed peacefully over the Rainbow Bridge while overlooking her yard from her favorite spot on the deck. Although we only had Minnie for 5½ years, she gave us so much joy and many great memories but her passing has left a huge hole in our hearts.
Minnie was my fifth dog and the first female. I always thought that a female would be too submissive but Minnie proved me wrong with her strong will but gentle disposition. I swore after losing our previous dog that I would never get another one but when I became lost in severe depression caused by my ongoing cancer treatment, I needed that unconditional love that only a dog can give and Minnie came into my life and filled that need. It was my many walks with her that lifted me up out of that mental haze.
We got 3 mo-old Minnie in February six days before my 74th birthday from a foster home in Webster Groves. She and her brother, Mickey (Mouse), were the last two of a litter of seven Lab/Great Pyrenees pups. We were immediately drawn t her big brown eyes encircled in black like she was wearing mascara (we should have renamed her to Maybelline!) and her eager, playful personality.
We brought Minnie home on Friday afternoon (she didn’t like the short car ride) still wearing stitches on her belly from her spaying the day before (too early spaying is likely a contributing factor to her developing cancer at such a young age).
She was very intelligent: I hung a bell on the French doors to the deck on Saturday and by Sunday morning, Minnie had
learned to ring it to go outside; she only had a few ‘accidents’ in the house. As she grew bigger, Minnie learned to pull on
the lever handle doorknob to let herself out, and soon after, how to pull open the door to let herself in…until she started
letting her in-house-only Siamese cat brother Khia out and we had to start locking the door.
I immediately started walking Minnie and taking her to Home Depot and Menards; she quickly learned that the people at
the registers and in the orange Home Depot vests often had treats and it became her favorite store, where everyone knew her. She loved to go ‘bye, bye’, meaning she would be getting out of the car, but always turned down going for a ‘ride’, which meant that she had to stay in the car. Minnie never had separation anxiety when we announced that we were going to the ‘store’ and she couldn’t go with us. She loved going shopping in the many stores that allow dogs inside, to flea markets and car shows, anywhere that she could meet people and other dogs. Everyone was captivated by and marveled at her beauty, her calmness, and her eagerness to meet.
Minnie loved other dogs and little kids, who were immediately drawn to her. She grew up with Julie’s Golden, Toby, and
Cassie’s Labs, Sadie and Dexter, as well as Amy and neighbor Walter, and she wanted to meet every dog we saw on our
walks, often balking in place until they caught up with us. She has been the big sister to our cats Sammy, Khai and Josie.
Minnie was fascinated by the first toddler she saw, and she has been a gentle and patient companion to great grandkids
Cameron and Olivia. She was very food-motivated but had a gentle mouth when taking food out of tiny hands.
Fireworks and loud noises never bothered Minnie but she loved to bark at the thunder and the monthly storm siren test to make them go away. The Great Pyrenees in her had her keeping watch over the neighborhood from our deck for intruders like squirrels and rabbits and bears and lions and tigers. Her favorite toy was a tree branch log from a neighbor’s tree that fell in our yard; she carried that log around or retrieved it when I threw it off the deck for several years until screws andglue couldn’t hold it together any longer. I gave her other logs but she wouldn’t play with them; a rubber Nerf ‘dumbbell’ toy finally replaced the log as her coveted toy.
Minnie was diagnosed far too young with lymphoma last November a week after her fifth birthday. When a course of
antibiotics didn’t shrink her swollen lymph nodes, lymphoma was confirmed and she went through a 6-month
chemotherapy regimen that quickly shrunk her nodes but the lymphoma roared back within a month of ending chemo, and follow-on salvage chemotherapy had little effect. I was trying to get her into a clinical trial at the University of Missouri Veterinary School but her lymphoma progressed beyond the criteria for acceptance into the trial. We then concentrated on keeping her as comfortable as possible but she grew steadily weaker and our walks grew shorter and took longer. She would have a bad day then a good day but the bad days finally outnumbered the good ones and she let us know that it was time for her to go.
Roger Caras said, “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole” and Will Rogers famously said, "If there
are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went." Dogs (God spelled backwards) are mankind’s
greatest gift and one we often don’t deserve. While I wish that I could have had many more years with Minnie, I cherish the time that I had with her and I know that she will be waiting to meet up with me again someday and we will play catch with her log once more. But for now, my heart is aching.
