Saying goodbye to Buster. A good little dog.

[Hekate]

34. Ask the vet if you can be there to hold him when he gets his shot

I've done this for two of our dogs. I held the little one in my arms while she cried from her shot (she always was very sensitive) and promised her that all the bad stuff would be over soon. I wrapped her in a towel and just held her while her breathing and heartbeats slowed and slowed. The big dog was much too big to hold, but I was able to stroke her head and ears and tell her what a good girl she was.

They trust us so -- and at the end they trust us to make the bad things go away. Someone has to do it, and in my family apparently that someone is me. I've just deleted as irrelevant all the stuff about Betsy and Zima that's making me cry in sympathy with you, TSS -- I loved them dearly, but in the end, it was love that led me to make this decision. They were old, sick, and in pain, and there is no cure for the infirmities of extreme old age. So you do what you can, you do what you must.

If there's a Heaven at all, it will be where we meet our dogs again.