Time to Say Goodbye?

How do you know when it is time to say goodbye to your beloved fur baby? When is just one more pet, kiss and cuddle enough? 

My family and I had to answer these heartbreaking questions last week for our baby Penny. We quickly found out there is no right answer and one more time of loving on your pet will never be enough!

Looking at her sweet face brings me to tears and I am sure it will for a while. Penny was our corgi that graced our family for over 10 years with sass, joy and laughter. She loved us fiercely and when she kissed you, she would stare deep into your eyes like she was looking at your soul. It was a bit unnerving lol, but it was Penny.

For most of her life, Penny was a healthy dog with zero problems. Until this last year, her only heath problems were self inflicted! When she was younger, she had a passion for hunting bees and spiders and ended up at the emergency vet more than once. The worst time was when her throat was closing and the emergency vet had to remove 6 stingers from her tongue. No bee sting was going to deter Penny!

This last year Penny took a turn for the worst and she was in and out of the vets. Each visit seemed unrelated to the last (itching, skin infection, sluggish, yeast infection), but in hindsight we are pretty sure it was all related to her developing diabetes. We took Penny to the vets last week because she was urinating everywhere including her own dog bed. We discovered Penny had severe diabetes with a glucose level of 736. She also had ketones in her urine. This explained why Penny slept all the time and was eating less.

After many questions, we decided it was more humane to say goodbye to Penny than attempt to treat diabetes at this point with it being so far progressed. We are ever thankful for Dr. Kelly at VCA Premier Animal Hospital in Cedar Park, TX (https://vcahospitals.com/premier?utm_source=maps&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=VCA_Premier_Animal_Hospital_and_Pet_Resort). She carefully answered every question we had about Pennys quality of life, what life would look like for her and whether it would be possible to get the diabetes under control.

Deciding whether to try with Penny or not really came down to the stage she was at and the likelihood, or lack there of, of her being able to have a quality life. It was one of the hardest decisions we made and not something we took lightly. VCA gave us an insulin shot to get Penny through the night and we took her home and spoiled her! It was painful knowing it was her last night, but we made sure she wanted for nothing and was loved on all night.

The next day we took Penny into VCA. They created such a loving space for us to say goodbye to our baby. She got to enjoy a cupcake and some chocolate and then we loved on her while she crossed the rainbow bridge. It was immensely heartbreaking to be there for Penny’s last breaths but also incredibly peaceful knowing she was not alone.

What this experience has taught me is that no matter how many questions you ask or articles you read deciding your pets fate will always be a task of uncertainty. I believe there is no right or wrong in these situations. You must seek the answer within yourself and with your family and also equally understand that it may be different than other peoples answers and that’s OK. There’s never going to be a right time to say goodbye and there will never be enough to satisfy us when we say goodbye. I try and take comfort in knowing that it is so hard to say goodbye because they brought us joy and love. There can’t be sadness if there was no happiness.

Hold your fur babies extra tight tonight and love on them before you have to say goodbye.