Celebrate a lost life. I still talk to Snuggles every day, 15 months since I lost her.
It helped my grief immensely to do this.
Thank you Skittles.

They are incredible dogs.

The grandfather of one of my beardies won group twice at Westminster. Spencer was on the show circuit for a while. Spencer made it to 15.5 before we had to say goodbye.

We used to compete in herding trials. One of my ex-wife's beardies won the national herding competition back in 1991. I currently have a beardie boy and my older two kids each have beardies. Two of our beardies were in the Shaggy DA. The breeder of my and my middle child's current beardies had the beardie that got the show credit for that film.

I loved to watch beardies herd. Herding competitions are really fun.

because she'd had such a slow deterioration. But once we decided, Laps of Love gave us excellent care.

It was worth it to spend the extra money (compared to the vet's office) to do it at home.

When one of my beardies was ready we took him to the vet (who used to date my sister when they were in vet school). I flew my middle child down from law school and we went to the vet office. My other two children had said goodbye earlier in the week at my house. They brought my dog into the vet's private office and we were there when they gave him the first shot.

I was with my oldest at the vet when he said goodbye to his 14 year old beardie a year or so. The vet office had a room for saying goodbye that was nicely set up for this and my oldest got to lie on a rug with his dog for 45 minutes. I sat on the couch taking pictures and petting the beardie while my oldest was on the floor with his friend. It was nice and we were not rushed.

Again, it is hard to say goodbye to a family member. The next time, I will say goodbye at home.

Our first dog and, later, our adult son's dog, died in the cozy room at the vet's. Still, they weren't fooled -- they knew they were in a vet's office! And, unfortunately, the procedure for both involved the vet taking the dog away for ten minutes, and the dog returning with a leg partially shaved and an IV inserted. So they had to endure that procedure away from us, and we wanted to avoid that.

This time no IV was required and no trip to a back room without us. My husband and our son and I sat on our couches at the end of our own kitchen. The vet fed our dog some kind of tasty paste (which she eagerly gobbled up), and then we all sat and chatted -- with our dog in my husband's lap-- for 15 minutes or so for the sedative to take full effect. Then the vet gave her a shot to stop her heart, and that was that.

It was so hard to make that decision, but at least the final hour was as good as it could have been.