Letting Go

R.I.P. Spencer 1996-2009


Today I had to put my dog, my friend, Spencer to sleep. It was heart breaking because he was only 12 and a half years old, but he had medical problems. He had diabetes and was just getting sicker as time went on. He was going to the bathroom in our house, sleeping all day, and drinking all the time, spite the medicine we provided. Besides the fact of his poor health, he was just getting too exspensive to care for, and who knows if he was suffering, dogs hide their pain. Spencer was actually in the age range where Shetland's are supposed to pass away, he was old. My family did what we thought was best.

We toook him to the ASPCA to be put down. We picked him up and put him in the car, on the way there I didn't want the drive to end. Spencer was just his usual self sitting in the car panting due to the hot weather, also getting up and stumbling around the car when we stopped and started to move again (he was always quite a klutz). When we got there I took him out of the car and my father and brother followed into the building. There were so many people there today, mostly for adoptions. We waited about 20 minutes before anyone got to us, that kind of made it worse because we were standing there with a shaking/scared dog trying not to cry. A woman named Karen (who didn't work there) came up and asked us about our dog, she went behind the front desk and asked if someone would come out to get our dog so we could say goodbye. About 5 minutes later a man came out, who was responsible for putting the animals to sleep, got our dog. My brother and I said goodbye and he was whisked away. My dad was filling out paperwork at the time so when he turned around he said "I didn't get to say goodbye!". They brought Spencer out one last time and we said goodbye again. Then they once again took our dog away. What was probably the worst is that as my dad and I were looking at our dog walking and being taken into the back room he (my dad) started to cry. I've only seen my dad cry one other time before today, and that was when my great grandmother passed away. We left in tears and the car ride home wasn't really any better. My brother was practically speechless the whole ride. When we got home after a little while we all finally felt better. It's just so sad, it's like we lost a family member. I hate goodbyes. R.I.P. buddy!