The Dog Queen

My brother, Joe, is mourning his beloved Nala. I'm mourning this loss, too. And, so is Dad. I woke up this morning and found an email from Joe simply stating that Nala had died about 20 minutes earlier in his bed. The message was time-stamped 5:39 AM EST. My brother lives in Las Vegas so Nala must have passed away around 2:20 AM PST. She took ill, suddenly, last week and spent a few days at the vet's office for treatment of some type of gall bladder ailment.

I don't know when or where Nala was born. But I know she was just a young puppy, maybe a year old or so, when I, and an acquaintance at the time, found her crawling out from beneath a dumpster at an apartment complex in southwest Jackson, Mississippi. I wasn't sure how the other two dogs in my household would react, but I took her home and fed her and when Joe came home from work, he fell in love with her almost immediately.

I remember not wanting more than one dog in the house, and that was my Shar Pei, Coco. Joe had expressed to me that he wanted a dog of his own, but since I didn't want another dog in the house I said, "no." Then, I came home from work one day and found Joe sitting on the sofa with a tiny Miniature Pinscher in his lap. He got the dog anyway, knowing that I wouldn't put it out. I love dogs too much. So, when I found this wiry haired little mutt under a garbage dumpster and brought her home, I knew she was there to stay, too. Dad felt pretty much the same way when Joe showed up in Vegas with dogs in tow.

She was the only girl of the bunch. The dog queen of the house. We named her Nala after the character in Disney's The Lion King. She had a great personality. And loved to make noise. Her bark was distinctive and endearing and she was fiercely loyal. After I moved to Columbia and Joe packed up and moved to Las Vegas, whenever I would go out West to visit, Nala always remembered me and was overjoyed to see me. But when Joe would walk in the house, she ran straight to him and never moved from his side.

This is the second dog Joe has lost. The Min-Pin, Griffin, died shortly after the move to Vegas. He had gotten sick in Jackson and doctors couldn't diagnose the problem. Now, Nala is gone. I know Joe's heart is heavy. I know, all too well, the feeling of losing a best friend. It's true what they say about dogs and their masters. Even among all the people my brother has in his life and considers close friends, none is closer to him than Nala was. I'm so sorry she's gone. But I know she's in a better place.

Joe, your heart will heal with time. Remember all the good times you had with Nala over the last 12+ years. And, take comfort in knowing she is reunited with Griffin and Coco in Doggie Heaven.