Today our 13 year old Collie, Wesley, died.For the past year whenever we have been on holidays we have joked to the neighbour that looks after our pets that we fully expect him to die while we are away and that they are not to be worried if it happens.
Each time we have come home to a happy, healthy, old friend that can hardly walk and barely moves his tail anymore to tell us he's glad we are home.
This morning my mum got up and went out the back to feed the chickens. Wesley waddled over for his morning pat and then went back onto the patio to lay down by the door. Mum heard him whimper a few times and went over to see if he was ok. When she got there he had stopped breathing.
She came into tell me and I went to check. He is such a big dog and all I could think of to start with was how on earth I was going to move him.
I called David, all in a flap and I must have sounded desperate because he came home from work to help me.
The suddenness of it really shocked me and left me feeling guilty that there was something I could have done to prevent it. I had expected that he would go off his food for a while, and stop getting up for a pat when he was nearing the end.
We have been having a heat wave in Adelaide and while the dogs have been allowed inside during the day, they have to go out at night because Wesley in particular has a habit of pooping on the carpet. So when he died after being out in the heat all night I felt responsible.
I was talking to mum about it and she pointed out that he essentially just laid down and went to sleep, and what better way was there to die. This comforted me no end (good old mum!!)
As I thought about it further I realised that even though the heat might have contributed to his death, he was so old (mostly blind and deaf now) that it was going to happen and I would probably feel this way regardless of how it happened.
So they boys are in the back yard now digging a hole. Luke has been quite upset. Jordan said he felt sad but hasn't had any tears.
Probably the best eulogy for this old dog came from Jordan a few years ago when we were discussing whether we could keep the dog (some extenuating circumstances). Jordan's comment was "We cant get rid of him, he's part of the family. He's been in our family for as long as I have!"
So today we say good bye to one of our family.
3 comments:
Bye bye sweet Wesley. You'll have lot's of fun in Doggy Heaven, now that you can walk, see and hear. You were a sweet dog. We'll miss you.
It does sound like a very peaceful way to go. And he got to say goodbye before he did. I'm sure that it was hard that you or one of the boys didn't get to say goodbye, though.
It is always so sad to lose a special memeber of the family and our pets are very special family members, no one else loves so much without expecting anything in return, no one else is as available for a cuddle-
Blessings to you and your family Stephanie.
Beautiful post. Glad I found your blog.
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