The Marilyn Remembered Fan Club reports that the dog in question was a white poodle, small and adorable in size. Frank Sinatra, it seemed, had bought the dog from the family of Natalie Wood, and Monroe was immediately besotted. She decided to name him Maf (a wry joke of hers, short for Mafia).
Marilyn Monroe being the star she was (Celebrity Net Worth reports that she earned around $24 million dollars in today’s money for her movie performances), Maf had come to an adoring home and seemingly wanted for nothing. The pair lived in Hollywood together, and Maf took to sleeping on a magnificent and pricey coat that Sinatra had also gifted Monroe.
In “Marilyn Monroe: The Biography,” author Donald Spoto writes that the Hollywood star had several pets over the course of her life, and that she had been profoundly affected by a neighbor’s shooting of “her beloved dog Tippy” when she was younger. Per Spoto, Eleanor Goddard said that, when it came to animals, “she loved them all and was always trying to pick up strays.”
