LIFE GOES ON

I have experienced many deaths in my time both human and animal. I have found that one thing remains constant that is life does go on. It may not be the way you want it to without the person or animal that you lost but it does go on for good or bad. Sometimes it ain't easy. You mourn the loss but all the while the earth still rotates and people still live their lives even you. 

Kathy and I had to make that heart wrenching decision a week ago Saturday to take our old girl Torrie to the vet and have her put to sleep in a loving humane way. She was our 14 year old doggie dementia girl. We took her in on Friday to see about getting her some prozac to calm her down and the vet said that she had a stench about her that signaled her kidneys were failing. We already knew that she had cancer from a previous visit and having him say that her kidneys were failing well it gave me something to process. Because that is what I do is process. 

We took our old girl home with us and for the rest of the night I processed what the vet said. I even dreamed about it. When I awoke the next morning I had a calm about me and I turned over to face Kathy in bed and said to her "It is time." Of course she was asleep and didn't hear me so when she awoke we talked about it. It seems that we both had been thinking about the same thing.

Before we took our Torrie into the vet that morning Kathy drove to Michael's and bought a keepsake mold set and we made a mold of Torrie's paw print. We both cried as we did this loving deed. We also took pictures and shared them on our facebook because we wanted our friends and family to know what was going on. All of us are critter lovers and all our friends and family knew and loved Torrie girl as much as we did. She was the most gentle dog that I have ever had. Even moreso than my Lucky Lu. 

The trip to the vet that morning was not easy for us. Just as it wasn't easy for us when we took our other old girl Lucky Lu a year ago in November for the same reason. It  never gets easy. The vet has a cremation place that comes and picks up your critter and does the deed and then you go back three days later and pick up the ashes. With Lucky Lu we had someone else do the cremation because we didn't know that the vet did that if we had known we would have had them do it with Lucky Lu also. Anyway when I called the vet a few days later they said Yes we have her ashes so I went and picked them up. Let me tell you it is a beautiful thing. The urn was a wood box with a velour burgundy bag covering it that read "Until We Met Again At Rainbow Bridge" it was done in a yellow stitch.

Now both our girls are home with us where they belong. Also they're both at Rainbow Bridge running, jumping and playing together as they did when they were younger. I can just see them in my mind now. It is a comforting thought for us both. They were/are good playmates and they both were good together and they both were good to us and we were good to them. Our vet said to us when we took Torrie in on that Friday Our pets are good to us and for us, it is up to us to be good to them when the time comes. He is/was so right and that is what helped me to make that hard decision and it also gave me the peace of mind that I needed.

There is an irony to this whole situation of ours and that is before Lucky Lu got sick Buddy came into our lives. It was December 25th two years ago when the Budster wondered on our front porch and we took him in. Then a year later in November Lucky Lu got sick and we took her to the vet and once again made the heart wrenching decision to have her humanely put to sleep. This year our neighbor came to us and asked if we could take her 6 week old puppy this was the beginning of December. We said yes and that is when Nanalu blessed our lives. A month after that we made the heart wrenching decision to have Torrie humanely put to sleep. It seems that mother nature works in mysterious ways.

Now our little family is blessed to have two dogs, two cats, two birds and two humans all of which love each other and there is NEVER a dull moment in our home. Blessed Be.

These are my thoughts and feelings from Jillsville.

Here are Buddy and  NanaLu

Here are the cremation urns for Lucky Lu and Torrie Tu.

Lucky Lu and Torrie Tu in life.