I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago from a friend who rescued a dog from the city shelter because the dog didn’t have much time:  She was 11 yrs old and her family gave her up to the shelter because they had a newborn baby.  My heart pulled in two different directions with extreme sadness and extreme anger.  How could she give up a dog that’s been with her her whole life, and now in her senior years she threw her in a shelter because she had a baby?  What a wasted opportunity to have a gentle senior citizen around a baby….a baby that will grow into a child who has no fear of dogs.  I posted the dog’s info and photo on my radio station blog in hopes a listener would adopt her.

At the same time I received an e-mail from a close friend who needed advice but was hesitant to ask me.  His dog was getting to that point where he would have to make “that” decision.  He hesitated because he thought it would upset me.  I was eager to hear him out and try to help.  Clarice will be gone almost four years and I can talk about her and remember her and not cry like I did.  Of course having another dog around me constantly helps that situation.  Anyway, I gave him some ideas to make his dog more comfortable and I told him to wait a few days and to really concentrate on something.
I told him it sounds crazy but keep wishing and thinking that she will pass away in her sleep.  I told him he had nothing to lose and I shared with him that for years I told Clarice to please pass away in her sleep.  And as my vet said when she died, in spite of her selective hearing, she heard me and did indeed die peacefully in her sleep curled in her bed.

It also struck me how ironic these two situations were:  Two senior dogs on two different paths.  My friend would probably give anything to have his dog be 11 yrs old again like the dog that was dropped off at the shelter.  And here this poor gentle soul at the shelter would probably die alone there because her family abandoned her.

This story actually has an ending that you probably didn’t expect.  The ol’ girl in the shelter went to a rescue group.   And my friend’s dog?  She died peacefully at home in his arms three days later; a day shy of her “vet appointment”.