it ain't like mama fixed it
So, my mom wrote this absolutely devastating LJ post re: the death of Sis, and I just wanted to share it with anybody who cares.
So I post like once a year. But today I had to euthanize our 14-year-old dog. Last fall she was found to have a large (egg-sized) tumor on her liver, and it was essentially inoperable given where a dog's liver is and her age. So we brought her home, put her on a liver-cleanse diet (hand-cooked!) and she got better for several weeks. Steve and Christina were able to say their goodbyes to her on visits in December and January -- we knew she had just weeks to live -- and it became evident last week that her system was shutting down. She had slowly stopped eating and her world had shrunk to her bed in the living room.
Yesterday I made the decision that she would be euthanized today. I came home early from work, spent about an hour brushing and petting her, and took her to the vet this afternoon. She was stoic and calm to the end, relaxed peacefully into my arms and left this world.
This was a dog who had been given a death sentence at 5 months when her first owners hit her with their car, and we were able to adopt her minus a leg. In her early years she could run with the best of them, chasing down the hill of College Hill Park. But as she got older and her spine twisted to compensate for the missing leg, the pressure on the remaining joint worsened, Walking was painful and she eventually would not do much more than hop around the yard or house.
Still, she had several peaceful years in Florida being a lanai dog, lounging by the pool in the sunshine. A year or more ago she refused to sleep outside any longer, preferring to be in the presence of her family.
I don't know if there's a dog afterlife -- at the least we know that dogs don't sin and therefore don't suffer in hell -- but I hope she is in some sort of dog paradise now, chasing butterflies and frisbees and squirrels in the sunshine, restored to health and youth.
She was a good girl. We will miss her.
So I post like once a year. But today I had to euthanize our 14-year-old dog. Last fall she was found to have a large (egg-sized) tumor on her liver, and it was essentially inoperable given where a dog's liver is and her age. So we brought her home, put her on a liver-cleanse diet (hand-cooked!) and she got better for several weeks. Steve and Christina were able to say their goodbyes to her on visits in December and January -- we knew she had just weeks to live -- and it became evident last week that her system was shutting down. She had slowly stopped eating and her world had shrunk to her bed in the living room.
Yesterday I made the decision that she would be euthanized today. I came home early from work, spent about an hour brushing and petting her, and took her to the vet this afternoon. She was stoic and calm to the end, relaxed peacefully into my arms and left this world.
This was a dog who had been given a death sentence at 5 months when her first owners hit her with their car, and we were able to adopt her minus a leg. In her early years she could run with the best of them, chasing down the hill of College Hill Park. But as she got older and her spine twisted to compensate for the missing leg, the pressure on the remaining joint worsened, Walking was painful and she eventually would not do much more than hop around the yard or house.
Still, she had several peaceful years in Florida being a lanai dog, lounging by the pool in the sunshine. A year or more ago she refused to sleep outside any longer, preferring to be in the presence of her family.
I don't know if there's a dog afterlife -- at the least we know that dogs don't sin and therefore don't suffer in hell -- but I hope she is in some sort of dog paradise now, chasing butterflies and frisbees and squirrels in the sunshine, restored to health and youth.
She was a good girl. We will miss her.