Missing Mitzi

• Published November 20th, 2009 by Ann Monteith
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Things have been pretty sad around here lately. Several weeks ago our 9-year-old Corgi, Mitzi, died suddenly. In retrospect, I think Mitzi died the way most of us would want to script our last moment on earth: doing what we loved best. In Mitzi's case, she sprinted off the deck to chase a motorcycle on the road that runs outside our fence and made the long dash to the end of our backyard fence, and then fell over dead, no doubt of a heart attack. 

Mitzi was very particular about the vehicles she chased along the path she managed to wear down over the years; she never bothered with cars or trucks, only motorcycles and snowplows. I think she thought it was her mission in life to banish them from our road.

Of all the dogs we have had, Mitzi was the most difficult of all to photograph. The minute she would see you with a camera, she would flatten her ears so hard that she didn't look anything like a corgi. The snapshot below is one of the few pictures I managed to sneak of her with those ears in full corgi position.

The only studio portrait I ever succeeded in making of Mitizi by herself is the one on this calendar we used as a new product sample to show to clients. I shot one, and that was it. Down went the ears! 

I made the calendar photo the day Jim and I did last year's Christmas card photo. If it were not for Photoshop, her ears would have been flat as a pancake.

I'm so glad we have this silly portrait, especially since we made a wall-size version of it to display on an easel during the Christmas season . . . just because it made us laugh to see how preposterous the three dogs looked. I know it will make me smile when we bring it out in several weeks.

But I will still be missing Mitzi.