Yesterday, we said goodbye to our dear canine friend Tigger. His cancer had spread, causing too much pain to continue. He was my parents’ beloved dog, leading a happy life filled with love and kisses.
While browsing the Internet, I found a colleague’s social media post explaining what happens when your dog enters the room for their final moments.
I hope this brings comfort to you, as it did for my parents. May your furry friends now run freely in green pastures, chasing butterflies.
The End Has Come
Our beloved Tigger was in immense pain, with only days or weeks left before crossing the rainbow bridge. We couldn’t bear to see him suffer any longer.
When our family vet asked if my parents wanted to be with Tigger in his final moments, they knew the answer immediately.
Despite the pain of saying goodbye, they never planned to leave him alone. It’s a decision I later realized was the right one.
But we all need closure. My parents and I couldn’t have forgiven ourselves if we hadn’t been there for Tigger.
A social media post by Hillcrest Veterinary Hospital really opened my eyes and I want your to open wide, too:
When you’re a pet owner, it is inevitable, the majority of time, that your pet will die before you do. So if and when you have to take your pet to the vet’s office for a humane pain-free ending I want you all to know something. You have been the center of their world for THEIR ENTIRE LIVES!!!! They may be just a part of yours but all they know is you as their family. It is a crappy decision/day/time/event every time, there’s no argument against that and it is devastating for us humans to lose them. But please I beg you DO NOT LEAVE THEM. Do not make them transition from life to death in a room of strangers in a place they don’t like. The thing you people need to know that most of you don’t is that THEY SEARCH FOR YOU WHEN YOU LEAVE THEM BEHIND!!!!
They search every face in the room for their loved person. They don’t understand why you left them when they are sick, scared, old, or dying from cancer and they need your comfort. Don’t be a coward because you think it is just too hard for YOU, imagine what they feel if you leave them in their most vulnerable time and people like me are left to try our best every time to comfort them, make them less scared and try to explain why you just couldn’t stay.
From a tired broken-hearted vet.
Stay with your dog in their final moments, no matter how difficult it may be.
