Lady Jan says good-bye to an old friend

Good-bye old friend.

Mitzi Moodle dog born October 26, 1986 – May 15, 2007

My husband took Mitzi in at 4:15 today and had the vet put her to sleep. The euthanasia cost $52.00, that’s the cost for a pet less than thirty pounds.

At her best weight she weighted about 35 pounds at lest that is what the vet told me when I had her spaded, when she was five years old. Today I think she probably weighed less than 20, she was just that emaciated.

She had gotten to the point were she could eat anymore, I had tried can food but it just gave her diarrhea, so I switched to puppy food that had smaller easy to chew bites. But I think she knew the end was near, and didn’t have the drive to eat to fuel her body anymore.

When the time came it was more a release really she was so wasted, in pain, and confused, it was time to say good-bye.

Last night after my husband had took her out and forgot to bring her back in again while I was cooking dinner. She fell and couldn’t get up. She had been doing a lot here lately, she had no balance and no strength left. After dinner I noticed she wasn’t in her bed and looked for her. I found her on her side in the dirt where there was deep gashes on the ground next to her from were she tried to get up. And she was covered in pine needles and little stinging red ants. I brushed her off took her inside and gave her a bath for the last time.

For the last time I shampooed her using my own shampoo, for the last time I toweled her dry and used one of my good towels, for the last time I cleaned her ears and put ear powder in them, and for the last time I clipped her toe nails.

I told her I was doing all this so it would look like someone cared about her. Not because she wasn’t clean or her toe nails needed trimming, but because she was cared for.

I told her tomorrow she was going to a place where the dogs chase bunnies all day long and never get tired, and in the evening they get the best tummy rubs, and eat the best food and sleep in the best beds. And the next day they get to do it all over again.

It’s hard to say good-bye to a dog that you have had for twenty years.

I didn’t realize that she was that old! Not until we got out the paperwork and looked at it. Good God 20 years? Really, it’s been that long? She was a six-week-old puppy when we got her.

The things I’ll miss about Mitzi?

Sneaking her my pizza bread crust when my husband wasn’t looking.

Getting dog kisses on my toes when she want that crumb that was under my foot.

The way she always cleaned up the crumb mess whenever someone ate something (you’d think she was my doggie maid or something).

And how much she loved my nephew--that was her boy! She was always so happy when he’d come for a visit, and just about live on top of him the whole time he was here, with a very smug look on her face too.

I washed her bedding after my husband to her to the vet. I didn’t go I was a basket case and she was still here! My cat Pookie is sleeping on her old pillow and my husband buried her with her blanket.

Her bowls looked so sad setting in the sink after I washed them.

The last of her food that she could not eat anymore I threw away, and dumped out the water that she could not drink. At the last I had to pour water in her mouth to get her to drink.

It was time for her to go.

I didn’t realize that I would cry so much over that silly dog. But I am.