Back in July, my wife and I had to make the agonizing decision to have our beloved Becca euthanized. Tomorrow we're going to have to go down that same road again as our dear Scruffy will be put to sleep. That will leave us with one dog -- Heidi, the eldest of the three at nearly 15 years old. She's not doing that well either and I'll be surprised if she makes to the end of 2009.
Scruffy has cancer. Though we don't have much money, we bottomed out our savings account in August so Scruffy could have two tumors removed. Of course, our hope was that we could nip the disease in the bud and Scruffy could enjoy many more years of life. Unfortunately, as with we humans, we only bought a few months as the cancer returned and has spread quickly.
Our little doggie can no longer use her right front leg. She hobbles around on three and yelps anytime her damaged leg is bumped or when she tries to readjust her position when laying down. Even worse, a massive tumor has sprung out of nowhere and is impacting her near her left hind leg.
So, the humane thing to do at this point is to alleviate her misery. Needless to say, it will be a sorrowful day in our household tomorrow. I will be losing my little buddy -- Scruffy goes everywhere I go -- and poor Heidi is going to feel lost now that both of her canine comrades are gone.
But in order to truly understand the beauty and value of life, we must each confront death and we will have a conversation with the Grim Reaper tomorrow afternoon.
Scruffy has cancer. Though we don't have much money, we bottomed out our savings account in August so Scruffy could have two tumors removed. Of course, our hope was that we could nip the disease in the bud and Scruffy could enjoy many more years of life. Unfortunately, as with we humans, we only bought a few months as the cancer returned and has spread quickly.
Our little doggie can no longer use her right front leg. She hobbles around on three and yelps anytime her damaged leg is bumped or when she tries to readjust her position when laying down. Even worse, a massive tumor has sprung out of nowhere and is impacting her near her left hind leg.
So, the humane thing to do at this point is to alleviate her misery. Needless to say, it will be a sorrowful day in our household tomorrow. I will be losing my little buddy -- Scruffy goes everywhere I go -- and poor Heidi is going to feel lost now that both of her canine comrades are gone.
But in order to truly understand the beauty and value of life, we must each confront death and we will have a conversation with the Grim Reaper tomorrow afternoon.
I am so sorry to hear about Scruffy. We lost our Bodhi this year, we still miss our friend.
ReplyDeletePeace to you in 2009.
It often amazes me how much joy a dog (cat, bird, iguana, etc.) can bring into our lives! I've never had such a good dog as Scruffy before!
ReplyDeleteI could walk her without a leash. She got along royally with everyone. She didn't make messes. She had a great singing voice and the most serene personality.
For my wife & I, the thing that makes her death so difficult is that she only lived with us for 2 1/2 years. Before that, it's obvious that she was severely abused and neglected. It's too bad we couldn't have rescued her earlier!
One of these days we will get another dog. It probably won't be a puppy. It will be a shelter dog that another family has abused and neglected. We've found that adopting someone else's "throw away" almost always means getting a dog that will be truly devoted to it's new loving family.