Lady is in Heaven
Inbox
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|  Sep 18 (8 days ago) | | ||
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| Our sweet golden retriever, Lady entered heaven on 9-17-19 |
Dear Mason,
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This is the saddest letter I have had to write. Sweet Lady's life ended on Saturday, September 17, 2016. She's been very ill. The vet diagnosed her with heart failure in June this summer. We tried 2 different kinds of medications to help for during July and August. When we returned to the vet, she told us that they were not working, and her heart was going to continue to slow, until her life was over. At nearly 13 yrs old, weren't surprised, but still sad that it was happening.
Her failing heart caused a lot of fluid to back up inside her belly, because it couldn't circulate correctly throughout her body any more. These last 2 weeks, she's been obviously very uncomfortable. Her belly was so engorged that she couldn't lay down, she couldn't get up, and was no longer able to climb the stairs into the house. We all felt terrible every time we had to leave home, not wanting her to be alone.
Saturday, after soccer, we came home to a very sad sight. The fluid had filled her legs, her eyes were infected, and she looked miserable. I sat by her in the garage on the floor petting her, until dad and Spencer returned from their soccer game. Dad made a call to the vet to see if we could get her right in, and they said if he could be there in 30 min, before they closed. It was a rush to lift her into the van, and only Spencer and I were there to bid her a last goodbye.
Dad drove her to Boise to the vet. They confirmed that the best thing to do for Lady was to put her to sleep, and free her from pain. Dad stayed with her. It was a heartbreak for everyone. She will be buried in the foothills. Braden was not home when this was all happening, and was very hurt that he didn't have time to come home before Dad left to say goodbye. I wish we could replay how it happened, and made more time for all of us to be there together. It's my biggest regret.
I had to tell Brinley on my own, after picking her up from a friend's house. We stopped at the Amity church and sat on a picnic table in the pavilion. I told her what happened, and her cute little eyes filled with tears. It's like her tender heart just broke in two. Spencer is still crying. He is so upset. He can't really deal with it very well. It's 10x the sadness we had when his cat "Batman" died. Or like when your bunny died in Indiana. So much sadness.
We gathered in the living room Saturday night, and talked about it together as a family. We reminisced about all the good memories we have of Lady, seeing her put her head in the sliding glass door, watching her walk up and snuggle anyone that would give her attention. All of the times she ran away to Shafer View. We talked about the puppies and her friendship with Lizzy.
I'll openly admit that I never, ever, wanted to own a dog--or any animal, for that matter. But then I had you. And you were pretty determined to be Dr. Doolittle--taking in every living creature possible. Thankfully, that included buying Lady from our neighbor. Now we have had almost 10 years with her as part of our family. And she has a special place in all of our hearts. We truly grew to love her very much. Brinley has known Lady her whole life, She's the closest thing she's had to a sister. : ) And Spencer is so lucky to have grown up with a very sweet dog.
I'm so very sorry that she passed away before you returned home. Maybe she'll be watching over you and your work in Colombia. For now, we are finding a lot of peace that she is finally free of pain, no longer suffering, and hopefully in a very happy place.
We love you Mason. Hard times like this make us think a lot about you and miss you a little deeper than when we try not to remember how far away you are. I hope you'll forgive our imperfect parenting, and this hard decision we had to make yesterday. We know it was the right thing to do for Lady. And we will sorely miss seeing her run next to our car and welcome us home each time we pull down the driveway. She was so loyal and so loving. We will remember her forever.
I hope you have much happier things to report to us.
All our love,
Mom
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Sep 18 (9 days ago)
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I just dont want to talk about it. I have never felt so sorrowful in my entire life.
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Sep 19 (7 days ago)
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That was the saddest letter ever. I cried through the whole thing. I'm sorry. Losing a good dog like Lady is so hard.
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