Unbreakable: My New Autobiography Read Online Free PDF Page B

night, back at Hidden Hills, I put her in her basket – a child’s toy in the shape of a lamb, lined with soft fleece – wrapped in one of my shawls. She’d always had a thing about Ozzy’s socks, piling them up on our bed, so I found an old pair and tucked them under her. The air-conditioning in the downstairs cloakroom wasn’t working properly, so it was always freezing in there, and that’s where we put her. She looked so peaceful – there was nothing to show that she wasn’t just sleeping, so I took some pictures and cut off some of her beautiful fur as a memento.
    It happened that we had carpenters working in the house, so the next morning Ozzy asked them to build Minnie a little coffin made of oak, a wood that would last, he said. Then, with all due ceremony, we buried her under a willow tree in the garden. To mark the place, I had her name carved on a rock beneath the sign of an angel.
    I realise that some people will find it hard to understand how I could be so affected by the death of a dog. But throughout my life I have been betrayed, by my mother, by my father, by my first boyfriend and by my husband. Minnie never betrayed me, and I loved her for that.
    Maggie, her constant companion, spent the next weeks looking for her. It was heartbreaking; she would search constantly, going into room after room. Her tail, usually like a quivering question mark, began to droop, and it stayed that way until she died this year. By that time we had sold Hidden Hills and I knew I couldn’t leave Minnie to be dug up by a fox or a bulldozer making way for an outhouse or whatever. Luckily, one of the biggest pet cemeteries in Los Angeles was just down the road, so we disinterred her, drove to the pet cemetery and waited as she was cremated. We chose an urn to put her ashes in, and they’re on top of the fireplace in our living room in Beverly Hills. In due course, Maggie joined her. Maggie was sixteen, blind and deaf when she passed in her sleep.
    And despite her penchant for biting him, Ozzy loved Minnie too. He was hurting because I was. He’s a huge Beatles fan and, when he first met Paul McCartney, he had a photo taken with him. That photo meant so much to him that he had a solid gold picture frame made for it, with musical notes engraved around the side. But after Minnie died, he did the sweetest thing. He took his cherished photo out, replaced it with one of Minnie and gave it to me with a handwritten inscription.
     
Minnie was bigger than any Beatle.
    It turned out that Piers had a soft spot for Minnie too, despite her regular attacks on him. After her death he wrote a tribute to her in the Mail On Sunday :
     
For the last two years, the bane of my life has been Sharon Osbourne’s small white Pomeranian dog, Minnie. Every time I went near this ferocious creature, it would go berserk – snarling, growling and attempting to bite me. A behavioural pattern, in fact, rather similar to its owner. Minnie died this week, after a long illness. And I found myself feeling unexpectedly sad. ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll actually miss her,’ I told a heartbroken Sharon on the phone tonight. ‘She was a real character.’ I don’t normally ‘do’ dogs, but this was no ordinary dog.

3
    Reloaded

    The Osbournes back together again.
    A fter the dramas of The X Factor and the loss of my beloved Minnie, I retreated to Hidden Hills. America’s Got Talent was over for another season, and I planned to enjoy being a wife and mother again. Jack and Aimee were both based in LA and, like any mum, I kept an eye on them while trying my best not to interfere.
    Kelly was another matter. She’d been living in London for a couple of years by then. She’d gone back originally in 2007, opening on 10 September for a seven-week run playing Mama Morton in Chicago , the youngest actress ever to take the role. I remember going to the opening night and being staggered at what she had achieved. Although one of nature’s