Hazel — Mandy Lee West

I’ll admit that I’ve been putting off this post but I really didn’t intend to put it off for this long.

This has been a crazy amazing bountiful stressful roller coaster of a year but particularly so in this last quarter.

The thing I’ve been putting off here is talking about the loss of my dog friend.

My sweet girl, Hazel Crystal Gayle King – my Hazel May.

Hazel became my housemate in January of 2012.

Here she is before we grew her famous pigtails out…When she was tired, she’d plop down anywhere for a break. including a patch of dirt and gravel….

She came to me in a twist of fate orchestrated from another realm, I’m 100% certain.

I believe my grandmother, my mom’s mother, Julia Hazelle, brought Hazel to me.

I also believe my Hazel was the reincarnated soul of my childhood dog, Winnie.

*Disclaimer: you are not required to believe in this kind of thing though I highly recommend it.

The rescue from where I adopted her told me her name was Emmy.

I decided to call her Hazel, to honor my grandmother and my belief that my grandmother made sure that I met Hazel. And that was a close one that almost didn’t happen (another story for another time).

In fact, for a couple of years after I adopted Hazel, I would look at her and say, “I can’t believe I almost missed you!”

The rescue said she was about three years old but didn’t know much more about her- just that she had been crated about 11 hours a day and that she pooped and peed in the house and chewed up everything.

On the drive to her new house she was timid and quiet, looking at me the whole way home.

Once Hazel moved in with me, I understood quickly that she was a very loving soul.

All she wanted was to be a good girl and to be loved.

She chewed nothing in our house and she had exceptionally good potty manners, from day one.

She loved EVERYONE.

She wanted to be in any lap that would have her.

If you ever met Hazel, chances are, I have a picture of her in your lap.

Hazel had a bit of a jealous heart (but in a charming way). If I hugged someone hello or goodbye, she had to bark about it.

Hazel was in a perpetual good mood and liked to approach every new situation with her tail wagging.

She always walked into a room with a slight tail wag already going.

As she looked around the room I know she was saying with her little nubbin wag- “Hey! Hi! What’s going on? Seems like fun in here!”

She always had an expectation that something good was going to happen.

She was never suspicious that things might go any way other than good, with the exceptions of suitcases appearing and bath time…she wasn’t a fan.

When we set out on walks together, she would start with a running burst of energy for about 50 feet, then she would slide on into an easy, joyful prance.

Head up, looking left, then right, then left again- her pigtails bouncing, hoping to see something that delighted her.

When we’d pass someone on a walk, she would give a out short, friendly bark, throwing her head back as she did.

It was her hello to our neighbors.

2016- Big Snow Day!

She went with me everywhere I could take her.

She loved car rides, and she was sweet and trusting with vets and groomers.

The very first time I dropped her off at the groomer I hadn’t even gotten home when the groomer called me. My heart dropped as I thought something might have happened to Hazel.

But her groomer was just calling to tell me that Hazel was the sweetest dog she had ever met and that she loved her so much...

She did not play fetch.

She would play with other dogs for a little bit, but her real jam was interacting with people.

I took her to a dog park a couple of times, early on and she would always end up wandering over to a person sitting on a bench and then getting into that person’s lap as they looked around for the human that belonged to Her.

She was more of a nurturer to her toys, grooming and snuggling them and because she didn’t rip them up, she amassed quite a collection over the years.

She was unfazed by the vacuum cleaner but did not care for the sight of a broom.

Hazel would snuggle with me some, but she mostly just wanted to be next to me.

Throughout the day, she went wherever I went in the house.

If she was ready for bed and I wasn’t, she went on in there and got in bed. If I didn’t follow her to bed, after about 5 minutes, she would let out a single bark. “You still here? You comin’ to bed?”

Her favorite foods were fruits and vegetables- except for leafy greens.

Her all-time favorite snack was popcorn- plain, air popped.

When the air popper got fired up, so did she.

She would sit beside the popper, letting out random barks, eyes closed and throwing her head back to the beat of each bark, making sure I knew just how excited she was about getting a warm kernel of corn.

Hazel loved a good pettin’ and she weren’t choicy about who was giving it to her.

If the pettin stopped she would give the petter about 3 seconds to resume and if they were slow about it, she would wedge her nose under their hand and make a swift, strong upward motion, demanding more pettin.

She was 99% trustworthy to leave unattended around a plate of food.

All I had to do was point to a plate and tell her, “No.”

The other 1% was not her fault really…

One time, an egg slid off a plate into the floor #fairgame… another time involved a birthday cake on a table.

She was seated in a chair next to the table and it was there for a long time and finally she just couldn’t resist any longer.

Her iced beard tells a story of desire meeting impatience meeting great opportunity…

Late in her life, I accidentally discovered that she knew the phrase,” Gimme Kisses!” when one day I said those words to her (in a super high, squeaky voice, of course) and she quickly leaned in and touched her face to mine. I was shocked and repeated the words and she repeated the action.

I always wondered what else she knew from her life before me.

I wondered if she had ever had puppies, if anyone ever missed her or thought about her or if she ever missed or thought about someone.

In October of 2020, during the pandemic, Hazel was diagnosed with kidney disease and chronic pancreatitis, and I almost lost her.

It was a long road back to a place where she felt good every day, but she got there- with the support of a lot of medication. A lot.

Our lives were different after the diagnosis but there was a normalcy that eventually did return.

Her doctor told me that it looked like she was pretty advanced in her kidney failure and that she would probably only have a few more months.

She had 1 year and 7 months more and I’m grateful for every day I had with her sweet, sweet soul.

Back in 2010, I waited too long to say goodbye to my good cat, Cederick. The end was extremely traumatic for both of us, and that experience is emblazoned in my memory.

I swore I would never do that again. I swore that saying goodbye to my future animal friends would never be about feelings that were hard for me to endure, but that I would make decisions that were based on their quality of life.

With animals who are in decline, you can’t know the exact day or moment when it will shift and become dire so, for me, it just became about listening to my intuition as I observed Hazel’s physical changes.

And earlier this year, the day came.

On May 27th I made the incredibly difficult decision to help her leave.

The first night Hazel came to live with me back in January of 2012- after we got our pajamas on and climbed into bed, I whispered in her ear, “I love her I love her I love her.”

That became one of the things that I did all through our years together. It was part of our routine. Even after she lost her hearing I would still whisper those words to her and I know she knew what I was saying.

I have had the honor of sharing my life with her soul two times and I’ll forever send messages to the universe and to my Winnie/Hazel letting EVERYONE know that I’m up for a third go around if she is.