Mr Basil

Well, if you've been keeping up with Sir's journal, i'm sure you know by now that Baz has taken a major turn for the worst. He's hurting internally, he's being very snappy with Taybor. He's just not a happy dude. It hurts my heart to see him wanting to play, he runs (slowly) to get a toy and engage Taybor in a tug of war, but as soon as Tay touches him - he freaks out and is definitely in pain.

i'm cooking up some good snacks for him (gizzards and livers and other doggie things) so he can have some good meals. i hate to feel like i'm making him his "last meal" but really, if we must "put him to sleep" this week (and i have a feeling that we will) then i want him to enjoy his favorites. He's going to have all the cheese and biscuits and chicken liver that he wants.

It's just so hard to know exactly when the right time is. He can't tell you that he's done and had enough. It's always guess work. In the past, i think we sometimes waited too long in prolonging our pets lives - and that's just selfish on our part because we don't want to say good bye.

When we had to put our dog Chaos to sleep (the first pet we had together) it was so hard. Our vet actually sighed with relief and said we were doing the right thing, finally. That made me feel horrible, but i totally understood what she was saying. He was not happy, not eating and it was past time to do what needed to be done.

My little Pippin, sweet ferret, was blind & bald and going deaf - but each day was a joy to her and blind and weird looking as she was, showed that she was enjoying life right until the end. The decision to end her life was clear cut and easy to make, although not easy to carry out.

It's tough. With each pet death, i ask myself why we continue to share our lives with animals that will obviously die before we probably will. No easy answer for that one. They've become such a part of my life that i'll never be with out a dog. Nothing can ever come close to the feeling i get when no matter how long i'm gone - if i am gone all day at work or just ran out for 1 minute to get the mail - i get the same greeting. As if i am really the center of the Universe and they are so darn happy to see me. Maybe that's totally narcissistic, but who cares?

Dogs have taught me more about unconditional love that almost any human ever has. That, i think, makes the grief in their passing worth suffering through.