I took Martha to her veterinarian. She has a growth on her stomach and she is having trouble walking with her hind legs. Is it time to say good-bye?
When my youngest daughter was two we put our fourteen-year-old dog, Sally to sleep. Her grandmother said to her, “Sally was put to sleep today.”
My daughter said, “We killed her.”
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
― Will Rogers
In two days, we have a seven-thirty appointment at the veterinarians to put Martha down. She will die in her sleep. The doctor will give her a sedative, and then give her a narcotic which will stop her heart.
Martha weighs 63.8 pounds. She used to weigh 104 pounds.
Martha has cancer.
“Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.”
― Agnes Sligh Turnbull
This morning, for the first time, she didn’t eat her dried dog food. I made her warm bone broth; she drank the stainless steel bowl dry.
For the next two days, we will pet her, love her, and say good-bye.
The first night Martha slept beside my bed on December 2nd, 2008, after we bought her from Craigslist, she snored. I thought, “Crap, how many years do I have to listen to a dog snore beside my bed?”
Seven years, one month, twenty-nine days.
It wasn’t long enough.
xo
Pamela
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