Akin to the heartbreak you experience when you know it’s time to put down your beloved dog of 14 (or whatever) years. How can you tell them how much you love them, how much they mean to you, and how sorry you are to send them across their rainbow bridge. To hold them in your arms as the vet administers the shot and they breathe their last. It’s just awful.
That’s why I could never be a vet.
Beautifully and movingly written. I’ve come to realize that losing a pet hurts so much not because they steal our hearts, but because they become part of our hearts. The good news among the sadness is that we also carry them with us forever.
Thank you.
I had to do that with our cat a few months ago. She was 18, but we’d only had her for three years. I was her human so it fell to me. I carried her from room to room so she could have one last look, then out on the deck so she could see the fields.
I gave her a Bronze Age burial, a Kist Grave out by the barn.