This is my sweet, loving and beautiful dog Babs. When she was a puppy, she got into a bottle of Advil. We rushed her to the vet but since she was so small, her little kidneys had already started to malfunction. Over the course of a couple weeks, we were at the vet every day for IV fluids and we returned her to health. They told me that when she got older, she may end up with renal problems so I was (kind of) prepared for that. About three weeks ago, I noticed she wasn't eating as much and was losing weight. Last Friday, bloodwork confirmed that her kidneys were in trouble. Renal failure set in and she declined extremely rapidly. Yesterday I had to make the heartbreaking decision to put her to sleep. Today would have been her 11th birthday.
My daughter has been handling this situation with remarkable maturity and clarity. She turns 10 next week. Today, she decided that we still needed to celebrate Babsy's birthday and the fact that she is no longer sick and uncomfortable. The child baked a cake. All by herself. She made chocolate buttercream frosting. All by herself. I'm so proud of her, on so many levels. Here is her masterpiece...
And, so, today we celebrate despite our sadness and our overwhelming feelings of loss and longing. Babs was a very important part of our family and it will be a difficult adjustment. We just take comfort in knowing that because we loved her so, we were able to help her and stop the sickness. We had 11 years together and we are thankful. And if she were here, we'd let her eat cake.
No comments:
Post a Comment