Saying Farewell to A Friend

Two weeks ago I had to take Sammi Jo in her for her last visit to the vet.

It was heart wrenching.

She has been getting worse and worse for the last year.

But still making that decision was extremely difficult.

Even knowing that it was best for her was hard.

For the last year she has had trouble getting up by herself and would have accidents in the house. Her arthritis was really bad and she wasn't eating well.

In July 2009, she weighed a Robust 97 pounds.

In July 2010 when I took her in, she was down to 87 pounds

and then two weeks ago, she was down to 77 pounds.

It was time.

However she didn't make it easy.

For literally months she could barely manage to get up, but on that day when I put her leash on her, she pranced about like a little puppy.

My resolve was shaken.

Whale waiting at the vet there were some labs there that were bouncing around and stretching and I thought, "I don't remember seeing Sammi stretch, it's been that long"

So the memories flooded along with my tears as I waited.

For my birthday in 1997, a short 8 months after we were married, Robert got me a dog bowl and a leash and told me to pick out a yellow lab, "because every boy needs a yellow dog."
We didn't' have kids yet, but we planned to.

She was precious and small and such a good companion.

Robert worked nights, so she kept him company during the day and kept me company at night.

She loved to play at "Barking Springs" in Austin.

She loved the Dog parks.

She welcomed in our other dogs the Gryndl Monster, Nomar Garciaparra and most recently Truffles.

She was a good older sister to David, Quentin, Alice and Joely. The oldest learned to walk holding on to her tail, fur or collar.

I don't remember Joely toddling after her.

She ate toilet paper, sought out mud and loved to wipe her face on the couch.

Up until about 3 years ago, she slept on our bed with us.

She snored.

When I was a sad crying mess, she was right there with me.

She couldn't resist a piece of cake and would jump up on the counters to eat cake.

Once she ate 1/2 of a baked ham that I made for some guests...I actually cut part of it off and served it -LOLOLOL

She also loved to eat hot pads, she was crazy for them.

She always followed the command to "Leave it"

But mostly she was my dear Friend and I miss her.

My children miss her and Robert misses her.

We look forward to another life where we can reunite with her.

Taking her back to the vet's room, was so hard.

My parents have done that for our family dogs and while it saddened me to have them gone, it wasn't as hard as actually taking them in.

Thanks mom and dad for shielding me from that fr 40 years.

But now I'm the mom, so I took her.
I held her paw and scratched her chin and ears until she had passed.

I could feel her spirit leave and it was very peaceful, I'm glad that I was with her to the very end.

I'm grateful that was in out lives for 13 years.