April 16, 2019 Leave-taking
Everyone who has had a pet, be it large or small, knows the time will come when that loved animal will take his leave. Our greatest hope, as we watch him growing older, arthritic, not eating well, getting thin despite the best food we can offer, and possibly losing control of bowel or bladder function, is that you will wake one morning to discover that Pepper or Fluffy has slipped off to another land in his sleep. Thus sparing you from making that dreaded call to the Vet. It seems it seldom happens that way. I have had many animals and only once did his leave-taking happen that way.
Not because i did not wait long enough. Perhaps in at least one case I waited too long and caused
Zairah to suffer. Knowing when to let go is so hard. Some animals actually do seem to tell you when they have had enough. But many are stoic--suffer in silence.
Before this sounds like a dirge, I want to tell a couple of stories where there were happy endings.
This morning a neighbor told me one of her Chihuahuas, a 16 year old female, had died. She said the
family had been disagreeing on whether or not to make that final trip to the Vet. Last night the little dog curled up in her bed. This morning she was still there, eyes closed, no breath. And the family,
while saddened, was glad she had made the choice to go on her own.
Many years ago I had a white mouse. I was walking in downtown Montpelier, Vermont on a snowy night just before Christmas. Passing by the Capitol, I spotted something very small in the snow.. I stopped, and there at my feet huddled a tiny white mouse. Where on earth could he have come from and what was he doing out there in the cold? He was obviously not a wild mouse. When I reached down, he climbed right into my hand. I tucked him inside my mitten and took him home. My
children were delighted with the new pet. They named him Tiger. Tiger kept escaping from the wire
cage I first housed him in, and we had a much too vigilant cat. So we purchased an aquarium and covered it with a screen top. I made a tiny house from a toilet paper roll insert. I gave him some scraps of fabric and he gathered them up and stuffed them in his house. A wee china doll's cup made the perfect dinner bowl. He loved bits of almost anything we ate. Tiger liked a clean house. He would
gather up shells from the seeds he enjoyed and throw them into one corner. Tiger's favorite treat, as you can well imagine, was a good aged cheddar cheese. Not something he got on a regular basis so
it was always special. Mice live approximately 1000 days . Christmas day, three years from the time I had carried him home, found Tiger wobbly and not eating much. He had stopped keeping house a few days earlier. My son gave him a little chunk of his favorite cheese. Tiger took it in his tiny pink paws, but did not begin to eat. Next morning we peeked into Tiger's house when he did not come out to the sound of voices. Tiger was still holding his chunk of cheese. He had laid his head on top, using it as a pillow. He had slipped away in the night. None of us cried. We missed him of course, but we
knew Tiger had led a happy life and had left in a very good frame of mind.
Everyone who has had a pet, be it large or small, knows the time will come when that loved animal will take his leave. Our greatest hope, as we watch him growing older, arthritic, not eating well, getting thin despite the best food we can offer, and possibly losing control of bowel or bladder function, is that you will wake one morning to discover that Pepper or Fluffy has slipped off to another land in his sleep. Thus sparing you from making that dreaded call to the Vet. It seems it seldom happens that way. I have had many animals and only once did his leave-taking happen that way.
Not because i did not wait long enough. Perhaps in at least one case I waited too long and caused
Zairah to suffer. Knowing when to let go is so hard. Some animals actually do seem to tell you when they have had enough. But many are stoic--suffer in silence.
Before this sounds like a dirge, I want to tell a couple of stories where there were happy endings.
This morning a neighbor told me one of her Chihuahuas, a 16 year old female, had died. She said the
family had been disagreeing on whether or not to make that final trip to the Vet. Last night the little dog curled up in her bed. This morning she was still there, eyes closed, no breath. And the family,
while saddened, was glad she had made the choice to go on her own.
Many years ago I had a white mouse. I was walking in downtown Montpelier, Vermont on a snowy night just before Christmas. Passing by the Capitol, I spotted something very small in the snow.. I stopped, and there at my feet huddled a tiny white mouse. Where on earth could he have come from and what was he doing out there in the cold? He was obviously not a wild mouse. When I reached down, he climbed right into my hand. I tucked him inside my mitten and took him home. My
children were delighted with the new pet. They named him Tiger. Tiger kept escaping from the wire
cage I first housed him in, and we had a much too vigilant cat. So we purchased an aquarium and covered it with a screen top. I made a tiny house from a toilet paper roll insert. I gave him some scraps of fabric and he gathered them up and stuffed them in his house. A wee china doll's cup made the perfect dinner bowl. He loved bits of almost anything we ate. Tiger liked a clean house. He would
gather up shells from the seeds he enjoyed and throw them into one corner. Tiger's favorite treat, as you can well imagine, was a good aged cheddar cheese. Not something he got on a regular basis so
it was always special. Mice live approximately 1000 days . Christmas day, three years from the time I had carried him home, found Tiger wobbly and not eating much. He had stopped keeping house a few days earlier. My son gave him a little chunk of his favorite cheese. Tiger took it in his tiny pink paws, but did not begin to eat. Next morning we peeked into Tiger's house when he did not come out to the sound of voices. Tiger was still holding his chunk of cheese. He had laid his head on top, using it as a pillow. He had slipped away in the night. None of us cried. We missed him of course, but we
knew Tiger had led a happy life and had left in a very good frame of mind.
What a lovely and uplifting story. Thank you for sharing that.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying recalling these memories.
ReplyDelete