“There is no other way to say this: Monkie is gone.”

When I read these words on Facebook, my heart sank. We had just featured the sweet Pug as our Monday Miracle, sharing her inspiring story of recovery and love.

Monkie was used as a breeder for more than a decade and then dumped after-hours in a closed cardboard box in front of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA. She barely survived the sweltering July night.

After a month of medical care, including surgeries to remove a damaged eye and cancerous mammary tumors, Jeanette Upright and Jim Leary adopted her and gave the senior girl an amazing life. They had just celebrated her first gotcha day with a trip back to the Charlottesville area to visit shelter staff and sniff around Civil War battlefields.

Upright posted on Saturday that doctors had diagnosed the pug with cancer of the heart. Regular draining of fluid filling her chest and belly would give her three days to three weeks more, but she would still be in pain. The couple decided to let Monkie go.

“I was with her. I held, kissed, and talked to her. She started her new journey peacefully,” Upright said in a post. “My little girl has left this world. My heart is broken. I mourn for her.”

She also said that had they known about the cancer, which doctors say could have been present for more than a year, they would have still adopted Monkie.

“We shared a lifetime of love and happiness in a short period of time, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Upright said on Facebook.

To learn more about Monkie, read our Monday Miracle feature on her. You can also offer your condolences on the Saving Monkie: The Pug Defying the Odds page on Facebook.