How A Miracle Became a Pickle

A few years ago I was the housemate of a really aloof cat. Maggie had been abandoned by my neighbors. When they moved out she moved in with me. Basically I fed her, kept her safe, and stayed out of her way. Occasionally she would let me pet her, but only with my foot and only until she changed her mind. Abruptly.

Although a few days before she died she did jump into my lap for a cuddle. It was the first and last time.

Sweet Maggie

 

On the morning she died I realized just how much I loved her. I buried her little body and sat on the front porch to smoke and cry. And cry. A few hours into my morning mourning I looked up to see an adorable, but clearly hungry and mangy, little dog looking at my from my front yard. I made a little noise and he ran up to me, into my lap, and we sat there all day. I called him Miracle.

Maggie and Neighborhood Bully, Red

I had always said that when Maggie passed, I would get a dog. I grew up with dogs and my 7 year marriage was the only time I didn't have one. On my 30th birthday my then husband gave me a card that said "now you can get a dog." I asked if he had picked one out, hoping on one hand that he hadn't because I wanted to help choose, but on the other hand hoping he had otherwise this was the lamest gift ever. It would be hard to top the small boys hoodie he had given me a few years before. But this card did it. About a year later, for reasons way beyond his inability to give thoughtful gifts, I sent him packing. I was happier than I had ever been before, but still felt the hole where a dog should have been.

My plan was to find a small female dog once I didn't have to worry about Maggie's sensitivities and safety. The dog that showed up the morning she died was a male pit mix. The last kind of dog I would have ever chosen. Good thing he chose me.

Little Pickle

At the time, Miracle seemed like the perfect name for this unexpected pit bull and that's what I called him for a while. But "Miracle" is a tough name for a dog and, with my Texas accent, it often sounded like "Mickle". But I couldn't see 15+ years of explaining the name "Mickle" and it soon morphed into "Pickle". Pickle stuck.

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