Pets

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.