How DO you say goodbye to your pet? If you are a pet lover and have been for awhile, you have most likely crossed this bridge. We have. More times than we care to count in our years on this earth. However, each time is different. You pray that your beloved pet will reach a ripe old age and go to sleep and pass peacefully on their own. This happens. It did with the majority of our past dogs. What do you do when it doesn’t work out that way? How do you know when it’s time to make the decision to say good bye to your pet, put them at peace, with the help of a veterinarian?
This last week, we had to make that dreaded decision for our companion of 15 years, our miniature poodle, Phoebe. Phoebe was diagnosed with a nose tumor last fall. We knew then that there was no viable treatment for her, especially given her age. Still, she was perky and continued to prance behind her favorite, Gary, and put our other two dogs in their place. This went on for many weeks. However, her decline was evident in little ways everyday. Our veterinarian told us we would “know” when it was time.
There were times that it seemed like she might be improving, but these were short lived. Some days we wondered if she would ever wake up, then she would want to eat without her appetite pill and follow Gary around the yard. There were no easy answers. How did we come to this decision then? It’s hard when your pet, the one who has been with you for 15 years, looks you in the eye, tracks your every movement, and curls up next to you at night. Ultimately, we knew what we had to do and it hurt. There were tears from both of us and our family. But it was time. She went peacefully. We put her puppy toy, Sharky, in her box along with her soft blanket. We cried. We cried some more.
We wanted to share our considerations for our choice. We never discussed this in front of Phoebe. Animals are smart. Phoebe was especially smart. When we talked about her future, it was in private.
Here are our considerations for our choice:
- Were we keeping her with us for us …or for her?
- What was her quality of life?
- Was she in pain?
- Would she get better?
- What did our gut say?
- What did her eyes say?
My hope is that no one or no animal suffers, but in this world of yin and yang, there is life and death. We do believe that life goes on beyond death and that our Phoebe is prancing and playing on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.