OT - I forgot how much it sucks to put a dog down, A positive one year update on an old thread. Options

[bigkensteele]

We weren't even looking for a dog when she came to us. She was a blue healer (Australian cattle dog), and a friend of the family had taken her in from the Humane Society as a work dog, as he worked horses on a ranch in the Carolinas. They told him that she had been abused and abandoned.

She ended up being a horrible herder, but a great pet. He didn't need a pet, so he brought her to my parents' house on Christmas day, 2001 in the hopes that my folks would take her, as they had recently lost a great old German shepherd. They were also recently retired and really didn't want another dog at that stage.

My wife and I arrived a little later, and I see KD and ask who she belongs to as I lean down to greet her. She damn near barreled me over, and she is only 35 pounds. As I am petting her, the friend says that she is ours if we want her. Now, my wife was 7 months pregnant with our first child and not really a big fan of dogs larger than a dust mop, but she saw her in my lap and just how much love that dog had in her heart, and she said, "We'll take her".

We brought her home and she never barked once until two months later when we brought our daughter home from the hospital. If there was knock on the door or the doorbell rang, she went nuts. She was the most protective and affectionate dog I have ever met.

My daughters are now 10 and 6, and the dog is probably 15 or older. For the first few years, KD wasn't much more than a moving piece of furniture to them. She stood by and watched over them protectively, but they didn't interact much. However, over the last three or four years, my oldest daughter, Harper, had developed a great love for KD, and they had become the best of friends.

She stopped eating earlier this week. She would often go a day without eating, but never three. She had been in a state of decline for the last few months, but it had accelerated rapidly over the last few weeks. So, my wife took her to the vet this afternoon, and they did blood work, x-rays and and ultrasound. She had a mass on her spleen the size of a softball. Surgery was an "option", but it wouldn't have bought her much time, if she lived through it.

I had to have my first dog put down on my 19th birthday, and I couldn't handle it, so my brother stayed with her. I'm 43 now, and have lived through the loss of grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., but I had never had to make the decision that a living being should live or die and stay with them while it was carried out.

So, Libby and the girls said their good-byes, and I knew in my heart that I owed it to this beautiful girl to comfort her in her final moments, just as she had been a comforting soul by my side for the last 10 years. So I stayed with KD through the end, and it was one of the most, if not the most painful experiences of my life, and I have had a few.

Sorry for the downer. I know that losing a dog is not the end of the world, and pales in comparison to the losses that many here have experienced. I just needed to get it out of my head and into written form.

KD and her best friend...