What to do when your dog is dying.

[kylecassidy]

This came in the mail and I thought that since it applies to a lot of people, I'd answer here. If the rest of you want to share your stories and your love and your support, please do in the comments.

A reader writes:

Our dog Dolby has cancer and we don’t know how long he has left (3 months? 9 months?) do you have any advice to cope? My wife and I

Comments

[tsarina]

It's so hard. It's so, so hard. I too do not like uncertainty.

Everything Kyle says is good here. Be gentle with yourself in this process as you figure it out. It is hard and it's okay to have just really bad days where it feels bad. It's okay to have ugly feelings, because those won't be forever. In the end, I find that the joy and the love remains most vivid.

I hope you can have an endless birthday year with your friend.

[cynic51]

>>We learned about a home-euthanasia service.
This a million times. We used one for both of our dogs. For the dog my wife brought to the relationship, whose last illness came out of nowhere, they reviewed all the vet documentation and reassured her that she was doing the right thing. The same service also took care of cremation and urns and the whole nine yards so we didn't have to think about it.

It still sucks horribly, but it sucks a lot less for the dog (cat/whatever) to be somewhere they are comfortable instead of some building they don't recognize.

[i]

This is beautiful, Kyle. I know we don't know each other super well, but, like many of my LJ friends whom I later met in the real world, you were exactly what I expected. Your care for Roswell just cemented my big like for you. All pets should be so lucky.

[kylecassidy]

oh, that's so nice to hear. <3 <3 <3 thank you.

[alumiere]

thank you for this beautiful response. i'm currently trying to help my roommate through the last of their 3 rats dying. they all had wonderful and long lives, wenzday almost hit 3, kiki was just over 3 & jahg is nearly 3 1/2 which is amazing