By “Come on, girl, go with Sommer,” Mike Nayler said, trying to coax his English Mastiff mix, Minnie, to go outside with his wife. But the 90-pound pup lay sprawled on the bed beside him, refusing to budge. “I’ll have to get up,” Mike sighed, and the instant his feet touched the ground, Minnie was right on his heels.
Mike had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which he knew might claim his life. The treatment left him so weak, it was a struggle for him to even stand up. It was all he could manage to drag himself onto his Fort Erie, Ontario, back porch while Minnie went out in the yard to do her business. Then it was back to bed, where his faithful friend refused to leave his side—even to eat.
Mike and Minnie had been together since the day she was born. They were fast friends and Mike took her everywhere—to the park, shopping, even into dog-friendly restaurants.
“If Minnie isn’t allowed in, I’ll go somewhere else,” he would always say.
But now Mike had a family…and a terminal diagnosis. “I won’t be around much longer,” he sensed, and after he passed away, he knew Sommer would have her hands full raising their two boys, Zachary and Elijah, who both had autism.
“Minnie needs to be able to run and play,” Mike told Sommer with tears in his eyes. They made the difficult decision to surrender Minnie to a no-kill shelter, so she could be adopted by a new family. “She needs a better home,” he said, his heart shattering.
But every day, Mike checked the shelter’s adoptable dogs site. Until one day Minnie’s picture was gone, meaning she’d been adopted.
“Have a wonderful, happy life, girl,” he offered up a final farewell to his four-legged friend.
Hope on the horizon
Between the cancer and the loss of his longtime friend, Mike quickly spiraled into a deep depression. But he forced a smile, for Sommer and the kids, and somehow, he kept going.
Weeks passed, then months, then a year, and Mike was still hanging on. His family gave him purpose and hope, but there was still an empty hole in his heart.
Every so often, he logged on to the shelter’s page, looking at all the homeless dogs and taking solace knowing Minnie was one of the lucky ones who had found a home and a new family.
But then one day—“Sommer! Come look!” Mike exclaimed one morning at the computer. “There! Near the back!” he pointed to a group shot of adoptable dogs. “That’s Minnie! I’d recognize her anywhere!”
Sure enough, due to a landlord dispute, Minnie’s new family unfortunately had to return her to the shelter. She wasn’t meant to be anywhere else but with me, Mike realized. He was determined to find a way to get her back, and to take back his own life as well.
For Mike, it was time for a brand-new start. With renewed determination, he began by making an appointment with a new doctor, and she sent him for a fresh round of tests. “You don’t have pancreatic cancer,” the doctor reported after reviewing the results. “You have intestinal cancer and a bit of it spread to your pancreas.” So the doctor put Mike on a new treatment regimen, and the results were nothing short of a miracle.
Within weeks, Mike was feeling stronger than he had in years. He checked in on Minnie on the shelter’s site daily, and when he felt strong enough, he made the call.
Forever family
After four months of treatment, Mike’s cancer was declared in complete remission. Shelter workers were thrilled when, two years to the day after surrendering Minnie, Mike returned to reclaim his faithful friend.
Minnie recognized Mike the moment he entered the room. “I’ve missed you so much!” Mike sobbed as the prodigal pup bounded over and rolled jubilantly at his feet.
Back home, Minnie sniffed her way through the house, licked Sommer and then climbed into her old favorite chair, where she plopped herself down and gazed at the family as though to say, “So, anything happen while I was gone?”
Minnie just celebrated her 7th birthday back home with the family she loves. “She saved my life,” Mike insists. “God sent her to me twice, and gave us an unbreakable bond.”
