Rest In Peace Marley

Today was a day that I've been dreading for a while. One of my coworker's pets has been sick for awhile. If you can remember back to a previous post we had performed a splenectomy on her back in December. I never filled you in on the result of her biopsy but it ended up being a hemangiosarcoma (cancer). She did amazingly well through these past few months. She'd have bad days but then would rally and get back on her feet again. And there was several times where we thought she was at the end, only to prove us all wrong. Such an amazing dog that brought so much happiness to those around her. She woke up today having problems breathing. And anytime she would get up her body felt it was too much and she'd fall over. So today was her day to get on her way to see her friends in Heaven.

Shelly, my coworker, gave me a call just to let me know what was going on and she invited me to come see her off, and I took her up on that in a heartbeat. You see, this is one of the first pets that I've had to put down that almost feels as though it's part of my family. My parents put my childhood dog, Toto, down when we were living in New Orleans so I didn't have direct contact with the situation. We perform this procedure on a normal day-to-day basis and everyone always asks, "How can you do that? I'd cry everytime." The answer is that you tend to get this thick rhino skin that keeps you from crying. You try not to identify too much with the pet or what's going on, while at the same time giving your respect and understanding what they and the client are going through. It's something I never thought I'd be able to do but it just comes with time. I must say though that there are times when I do cry. Sometimes even with the client, sharing their grief...especially when you know the client and the pet well.

As I said this is a day of been dreading, but at the same time I've come to terms with. I had my crying time over it and today went quite smoothly and I have yet to shed a tear. And that's not in a bad way. Instead of being sad to see her go I am happy knowing that she will greet her friends, both old and new, in Heaven. And as with every pet we euthanize I made sure to whisper in her ear, "Tell Toto I said 'Hi!'." Rest In Peace Marley....

11/4/98-4/18/07