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On September 26, 2006, I lost my beloved pet Mugsy. He was 13 years old and died unexpectedly. My girls and I were totally devastated. It was as if I had lost my first child. He had been there for me through some of the most trying times of my life; so when he passed on, the emotional pain that I felt was something I had never experienced before. I was so drained that I could not properly take care of my family and just wanted to lay down and die.

At the time of his death, my three girls ranged in age from 18 months to 11 years. The two older  girls were so very sad because they didn't know a time without Mugsy in their lives. We took pictures of our family with Mugsy on my couch before we had to drop him off at the pet cemetery/crematory. He had died on a Friday and he would have to remain at the crematory over the weekend.

All I could think about, as foolish as it may sound, was that I did not want to bury Mugsy outside because he might get cold. I decided to have him cremated, that way I felt I could keep him warm at home. But the PAIN inside of me was still so unbearable that my mom had to come stay with us.

God must have felt the pain I was in because that Sunday when I got up and went into the kitchen to see my family, I turned my head. There on the wall, was one of many pictures of me holding Mugsy in my arms. As tears streamed down my face, I felt an intense pain inside of me. Then within a moment, my whole body felt a calmness come over it. As I was staring at the picture, there was a stuffed animal of a small dog on the back of my couch, staring down at Mugsy. I looked at all the pictures on the wall and that same stuffed animal was just looking down on him from whatever angle the shot was from. That's when it hit me. It was like God was saying to me that this stuffed animal is Mugsy's guardian angel. “This is where you should put his ashes so you can hold him again in your arms”.

As my heart pounded, I turned to my mother and said "God is going to let me hold Mugsy again." She looked at me with confusion in her face, and asked, "How is that possible?" I said to her,” Right there in those pictures”. I ran to my couch and grabbed the stuffed animal and said “Mugsy is going in here”. That next day I went back to the crematory with the stuffed animal and laid it down on top of Mugsy for a while before he was cremated. I remained there to witness the entire process and brought him back home, still warm in my hands. When we arrived home our whole family participated in a small service and placed clippings of our own hair in with Mugsy. Then I came up with a way to safely put his ashes inside of the stuffed animal. With pure excitement running through my body as I held him in my arms again, the pain left my heart and happiness refilled it. Mugsy was still with us because we could hold and cuddle him.

In the days to follow I realized Mugsy's mate, Image, wasn't fairing as well. We couldn't get her to eat or drink at all. She was listless and wouldn't even lift her head. The vet and I feared she was going to die soon of a broken heart. I placed the new Mugsy cuddly urn beside her. She lifted her head and stared right at the stuffed animal as if she knew Mugsy was back with her again. Within a couple of days, she was back to her old self, eating, drinking and playing. By the grace of God and Mugsy's help Image is still with us today.