MWD Mig and I became a team in 2009, followed by a short and stressful time where we eventually became best mates. Together we travelled the country, met tonnes of wonderful people and, from Migs perspective atleast, were heroes who thwarted baddies every single night.
In 2014 MWD Mig was awarded the Canine Service Medal for 5yrs active service as a Military Working Dog, a milestone that sadly many working animals never get to see.
In Australia, a MWD and their handler are normally teamed 'for life', meaning you go everywhere together until one of you can't anymore. MWD Mig was starting to slow up due to injury so, at the end of 2014, he was retired and got to officially become a member of family.
We were extremely fortunate to give him a great retirement and take him on all sorts of family adventures with our two other dogs. The family cat was not too happy about the situation and would routinely entice Mig to chase him, only to end with Mig being quickly told off.
In 2019 MWD Mig started to suffer paralysis in his back end. Being the stubborn problem solver he was trained to be, he kept pushing through without any obvious signs of distress. Towards the middle of 2019 the family cat that he would always chase started to sleep with him. While absolutely adorable, this was when Migs health started to decline rapidly.
In mid 2019 we had to say the hardest of goodbyes