Privilege and responsibility: They are with us for a season, but we become their whole lives, and everything they ever know.
Sometimes you know a relationship isn’t going to work. I was 20 and devastated because our family dog had been put to sleep that morning, when my long-ago boyfriend said: “Oh, come on Jennie, it’s just a dog.”
About how my dad carried our adored black Labrador into the vet and the old boy lay on the table like it was a relief; how the rain fell like tears; how afterwards my mum and I sobbed in the car while my dad stayed inside; how, when he finally reappeared, he was red-eyed.It was the only time I ever saw my dad cry. Because it’s never just a dog.
I’ve had to make the final decision about a dog three times in the last four years. Juno was the last of our “three musketeers”, all rescues, all beloved right up until that very last breath at the vet’s.I know some people go “nah, can’t do that”, but staying with a pet as they slip away is the least we can do, a final kindness, a last thank you for their unwavering love and loyalty.
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