GIFT FROM THE HEART

Marilyn Hume with her new best friend “Allie”.

Two recent dates have made a big impact in Marilyn Hume’s life. Two dates that she will not soon forget.
First was the day her much loved shih-tzu, Mrs. Murphy, was stolen from her Port Perry home... and the second was when she was offered a two-month old pup to help heal her broken heart.
Marilyn’s troubling story began on February 28 after she tethered her dog, “Mrs. Murphy,” to the front porch of her home. She left the porch to answer the telephone and when she returned, just a few minutes later, her beloved pet was gone.
Alarmed and distraught, she hunted the streets around Canterbury Common in the dark for hours, with no success.
The following morning Marilyn called the Scugog, Whitby and Oshawa animal shelters, as well as all the veterinarian offices in the area. This was followed up with ads in the local newspapers, the cable channel and on the internet - all to avail.
After two months of searching, Marilyn has yet to find out anything about the whereabouts of her pet, although she prays that it is safe and in a good home.
But, through the ordeal she did learn in admission to heartless thieves... there are many kind hearts within the community.
“I recently discovered angels do exist and there are still good people in the world,” Marilyn said last month.
“When Focus on Scugog did a ‘thumbs down’ about my missing dog (May 2010), a very kind Scugog Island resident called to say she had a litter of Shih-Tzu’s and wanted to give me one of the pups from the litter.”
The woman (we’ll call her Kari), who Marilyn is talking about was so troubled after reading about the incident she immediately picked up the phone and contacted Focus to offer her help.
“When things like this happen it makes me very angry. I just can’t imagine how it would feel. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it,” she said in a brief interview.
Kari informed Focus she had three female pups left from a recent litter and that she wanted to offer one of them to the family, all the time realizing it would never replace the dog she lost.
The two strangers arranged to meet and immediately Marilyn ran into a problem. All three of the pups were so cute she had a hard time deciding on which one to accept.
“I would have taken all three, but I knew that wasn’t possible, so I ended up bringing home one, which I named ‘Allie,’ she said. Ironically, ‘Allie’ was born the very same day - February 28 - that her dear pet, ‘Mrs. Murphy’ went missing.
For Kari, who is a self-proclaimed animal lover, giving a pup to Marilyn was no big deal. “It was a gift from the heart to a woman who has suffered a great tragedy,” she said. “It was a pleasure for me to help and it just makes me feel good.”
And in an ironic twist to this story, less than a week after bringing Allie into her home, Marilyn’s daughter Tracy and son-in-law Paul delivered a three month-old shih-tzu pup, “Ollie,” to her for Mother’s Day.
So while this story has a happy ending, Marilyn wants to warn residents of Scugog that there are predators out there and to keep an eye on their pets when left outside.
While she was searching for Mrs. Murphy, she discovered that there been an alarming number of small dogs gone missing recently, most and taken from their properties. Pet owners should be aware that there are people targeting pets and are bold enough to come on to your property and remove them with no thought for the devastation it causes the family.
For Marilyn, despite her heartbreak of loosing her good friend Mrs. Murphy, there is a silver lining.
“My faith in humanity has been resorted. Kari is a truly special person,” she says, as she hugs her fluffy new friend.

By J. Peter Hvidsten
Focus on Scugog