#2360 good-bye sweet girl

I woke up this morning like usual. I thought about what day it is - Tuesday April 14 - then I thought that I need to get downstairs to take care of Osi.  In less time than it took to have the thought, the overwhelming, heartbreaking truth came back to me...Osi is gone.

Yesterday we made the awful decision to put Osi to sleep. In the past month her health deteriorated quickly to the point where she lost the use of her hind legs completely. For the past few weeks, one of us had to help her walk or carry her outside and help her get to the grass. She spent a lot of time lying out on the deck or next to her food dish. We would help her "walk" to her bed or carry her there. I know if was no kind of life for her, but I couldn't bring myself to make the terrible decision. Honestly, I was hoping that she would die of natural causes, that one morning we would come downstairs and she would be gone.

MT, T, and i talked about what we thought we should do. MT thought it was time to call the vet. T and I wrapped our minds around it. When we came downstairs yesterday morning, Osi was lying in her own pee-pee. I could see in her eyes that she had just given up. The three of us agreed that the time had come. I called the vet and they told me we could come in that morning.

T and I took her to the vet and were with her the whole time. Her passing was quick and peaceful. It was hard to let her go, but I know we did the right thing. I spent a lot of time crying yesterday. Today the tears have come at different times and are brought on by things like picking up her water dish or  looking at the box of Milk-Bones in the cupboard.

I couldn't bring myself to throw her things away today. My friend Nicole told me not to worry about it and to take my time. MT was trying to be helpful this morning and put some of her stuff away, and I couldn't handle it. I'll do it when I'm ready. We had her in our family for a bit over 10 years. I miss her sweet face.