Oh my dear, to have him die at his own home is the best of a painful thing, yes?
When my most beloved of dogs, who had shared all his seventeen years with us, had gone downhill to the point of wanting to leave - and oh yes, he did let us know - we took him to our vet, who was a friend of his and of ours, for a gentle death. And when the time came to start the wind-down process, I couldn't face it and had to go wait in the reception room while my then-husband and my eldest brother stayed. And do you know what happened? My most beloved of dogs fought the anaesthetic, and fought it, and fought it until he did the one thing he'd never done in all his years, the one thing we used to tease him about never doing: he howled. He howled a primal howl, and I ran back inn - and even though he had been blind for months, the moment I entered the room again he stopped howling and raised his head to me. And I held him and stroked his head, and then he licked the flood of tears on my face and sighed a parting sigh, because he'd said his goodbye to me and was ready then to die and this time it was all right for me to go and wait outside while my men held him until his heart stopped beating and he was all gone.
And the name of my most beloved of dogs, still loved and missed by us all forty years later (to the month)?
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branchandroot
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Date: Sunday, 25 June 2017 10:11 am (UTC)When my most beloved of dogs, who had shared all his seventeen years with us, had gone downhill to the point of wanting to leave - and oh yes, he did let us know - we took him to our vet, who was a friend of his and of ours, for a gentle death. And when the time came to start the wind-down process, I couldn't face it and had to go wait in the reception room while my then-husband and my eldest brother stayed. And do you know what happened? My most beloved of dogs fought the anaesthetic, and fought it, and fought it until he did the one thing he'd never done in all his years, the one thing we used to tease him about never doing: he howled. He howled a primal howl, and I ran back inn - and even though he had been blind for months, the moment I entered the room again he stopped howling and raised his head to me. And I held him and stroked his head, and then he licked the flood of tears on my face and sighed a parting sigh, because he'd said his goodbye to me and was ready then to die and this time it was all right for me to go and wait outside while my men held him until his heart stopped beating and he was all gone.
And the name of my most beloved of dogs, still loved and missed by us all forty years later (to the month)?
Alex.
No, really.
x x x