‘You can’t break us’: Niagara man reunites with dear pet after cancer battle

They say that dog is a man’s best friend.

For one Niagara resident and his pup Minnie, that saying rings true.

“Minnie’s not a dog, she’s my daughter,” Mike Naylor said.

But, in the fall of 2022, Naylor says he had to make the incredibly difficult call to surrender his dog to The Humane Society of Greater Niagara, due to his battle against cancer.

“Her quality of life was deteriorating with me, because I could no longer care for her ,” he said.

“So, I tried to do the unselfish thing and turn her in to give her a better quality of life.”

Brianna Dingman, who works with the humane society, told CHCH News Minnie had difficult time adjusting to life without her best friend.

“Minnie was one of the dogs that was sad, and a little confused when they brought her in,” Dingman said.

She said Minnie was taken in as part of a boarding program being run at the time, which offered 30-day boarding services at no cost for those who were struggling to make ends meet.

In 2023, Minnie was adopted from the program by foster parents, at which point Naylor hit a breaking point in his cancer journey.

“I stopped going to treatment, I stopped going to doctors, I didn’t get out of my room,” he said.

But, his luck turned this year.

Last month, Naylor learned that his cancer had gone into remission, and his trusty steed Minnie had been returned to the humane society.

A video of the pair reconnecting promptly went viral on social media, and they have settled back in to their daily life together.

“You can’t break us, you can’t,” Naylor said. “I don’t think nobody can.”

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