Monday, we struggle through an end of life decision. After months of watching a slow decline, then a debilitating of diarrhea and vomiting with the inability to keep anything even water down we was faced with a choice. Pursue treatment in the hopes of finding and resolving the problem? Or stop and assist nature in its course? We choose to stop. Did I mention the patient was the family dog? Lucky has been with us for 16 years. He was a German Sheppard with white and black fur. We thought he was the perfect size for our family, not a small toy breed nor a large one. We’re city dwellers in an older part of Chicago which still has large lots and low traffic. Lucky was big enough to be a “dog” yet small enough to fit in that kind of life style. Lucky was brought as a gift for my husband. He was brought when we found out that we would not have to move to Tennessee. So Lucky joined our family that consisted of me, my husband, our kids, and the cat. We used to joke that we …show more content…
So many statements and reasons we worked through- if applied to a person it would have sounded horrible and heartless. And I couldn’t think that if it was this hard deciding to put my dog down, how on Earth will I ever make a decision for my family. We decided to halt treatment and put Lucky down.( I don’t like the phrase , but it’s too hard to keep saying that we decided to kill him, which in reality is what we did. I needed a softer word than “kill”.)I called the clinic, and told them of our decision. They asked if we wanted to see Lucky once more, and we decided to do so. Lucky looked very weak as if he already knew what was going to happen. When Dr.Jean checked on him again he was already gone. Tears filled my eyes as I saw my beloved dog die. We decided to cremate him and burry his ashes right next to Sam, in our back