Rainbow Bridges

The first personal experience I ever had with a dying pet was when I was very little, no older than Kindergarten age, maybe 5. My parents had had a Siamese cat named Momma-kitty forever before I was born, so my memories of her aren't numerous or strong, but I do remember her death.

A little while before she died, we were on the search for a dog. My mom wanted a small lap dog preferably, but we ended up taking home a 6 month old puppy all because she licked my arm through the cage at our local human society. She had been wandering the streets, probably eating garbage, before she was picked up by animal control.

When we brought this dog home, the cat made a beeline for the downstairs portion of our house and soon after that her food and litter box moved down there with her. At nearly 22 years old she started to stop eating, stopped using the box, and walking around resulted in walking into walls. She was sick and we knew it was time. A mobile vet came out and gave her the shots necessary for a peaceful death but he said that she was so far gone already that she might not have needed the shots at all.

I remember crying from everyone in the room and when it came time for burying, she ended up in a box with one of my toys. We put that box behind the fence in our yard.

After her passing, we had to focus all of our energy on Nellie the dog. She was such a handful in the puppy stages, but not outright disobedient. We had a very good and long life with her, and when we noticed that her quality of life was not better, but getting worse, we decided the best thing to do was what we had done for Momma-kitty. The event was much more raw and real than I had remembered, and the vet that came out is someone that I never want to see again; he made the event feel worse than it should have been, considering what was going on.

On December 28th, 2016 I said goodbye to my best friend. We cremated her and spread ashes in our yard, at the ocean, put some in a glass piece, and then kept the rest in an urn. We even created a small memorial area for her in our house so that she'll always have a place in our lives. On December 28th, 2017, we celebrated her one year anniversary of being gone.

The one in the snow is the last photo I ever took of her and the one with the picture from is something I had made in my last quarter of college.















Comments

Grumpy said…
It's always hard. I have cried more at the death of pets than at the death of some people I know. But the memories will always make you smile.
Anonymous said…
Awww, our Sweet Nell.

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