The Honest Courtesan

Tragedies refuse to space themselves out so we can deal with them less painfully; more often, they follow each other too closely for us to be over one before having to deal with each other.  So though I’m still grieving hard for Grace, our dog Annie has now passed away as well.  Annie was almost 14, but she was apparently healthy and happy until about two weeks ago, when she suddenly dropped a scary amount of weight in what seemed like a few days (she was always a very trim dog, so it may be that I didn’t really notice until she started looking less-happy).  Unfortunately, vets nowadays are almost as bad as people-doctors with making it difficult to get timely appointments, so when I called they couldn’t give me anything closer than 3 weeks out; I told the scheduler I was going to worm her to see if that helped.  Alas, it did not; she would eat especially-tempting tidbits, but not her usual kibble.  So I bought canned food to see if that would help; last Tuesday she ate it, but Wednesday she barely ate any at all, and what little she did eat she threw up over 8 hours later, completely undigested.  By this point it was obvious she had reached the end of her natural life; perhaps she had some kind of undetected illness such as cancer which had taken a turn for the worse.  So I scheduled her for euthanasia Friday, but just after four on Thursday afternoon she slipped away in her favorite spot.  Speck had been with her all day, cuddled up to her and purring loudly, and when I realized she was going I sat beside her, stroking her and telling her she was a good girl as she quietly passed.   I’m very glad it happened naturally so she could leave this world in her home, surrounded by creatures who loved her, rather than in a strange, scary place; would that all of us could be so fortunate.