We had to say goodbye to one of our best friends last week. Our sweet dog Avery passed away from bone cancer on February 27, 2024.
[WARNING – dog pictures below. So. Many. Dog. Pictures.]
We have always been dog people. We got our first dog when we were living in a studio apartment in downtown Memphis. Carly was a neurotic terrier who quickly forfeited our security deposit and adamantly refused to learn how to pee outdoors. She was the first in a long line of rescue dogs (and one impulse buy bluetick coonhound puppy) that has spanned 32 years.
Through the years, there was also Beau, a border collie with a penchant for wanderlust; Ralph, a bluetick coonhound who loved to chase squirrels; Lucy, a puppy mill breeder rescue beagle who never learned to connect with people or other dogs; Ace, an impulse rescue who succumbed to kidney failure within a year of his adoption; Belle, our middle daughter’s 16th birthday gift with an Elvis sneer; Avery, who never met a tennis ball she didn’t like; and Rosie, our last girl standing, who has separation anxiety and the softest eyes you’ve ever seen.
At 10-ish years old, we knew that Avery was slowing down and that the chances of her coming with us on our travels was slim and none, but none of us were prepared when we heard she had cancer. When we knew it was time to say goodbye, we struggled with the idea of taking her to the vet to spend her final moments. She had always been afraid of the vet’s office and we didn’t want her last moments to be in fear. She was also in a lot of pain and the thought of getting her in and out of the car to the vet filled us with dread.
Our vet suggested a couple of companies that handled the process in our home. We scheduled a time when we could all be home and Avery was surrounded by all of the people who loved her as she took her last breaths. The ability to say goodbye to her at home allowed us to all really feel all of our feelings and focus on Avery without being in a foreign and sterile environment. We know Avery was more comfortable this way.
We do want to take a moment to sing the praises of Home with Dignity. The veterinarian they sent to our home could not have been better suited to his job. He came in with a bag of treats for Avery and Rosie. He explained the entire process to us and allowed us to set the pace. He never hurried us or made us feel like he had anywhere else to be that day. This has to be a hard job, but he handled it with grace and empathy and made us feel very comfortable and calm during an awful time.
It’s been a few days and Rosie is trying to adjust to the loss of her pack leader. She isn’t eating much and sticks pretty close to us these days. She is, however, enjoying getting ALL of the attention and more walks now that the weather is starting to warm up. We hope she will adjust to her new situation soon. We’ve always had (at least) two dogs, but we will not be adding a new dog to our household, so Rosie will be an only dog from here forward. We hope she has a long, happy life with us and gets to join us on a few of our adventures before her time comes.
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