A Final Good-Bye

This is one of the posts for the title of my blog...remembering the 4 w's, which is the who, what, where, when and maybe the why...

Who:    Riley, our faithful dog of 10 1/2 years.  We loved him so.
What:   He went to sleep this morning and is now in Dog heaven!
Where: At the office of Dr. Lisa Parshley, an oncologist
When:  Friday, February 5, 2010
Why:    Riley had lymphoma, but the doctor declared him in total remission after three treatments of chemo.  However, we believe he must have had some other issues because he could not keep food down.  We tried some intravenous liquid injections and while we thought they improved his health for a day or two, the not eating continued to be an issue.

Dr. Lisa and a good friend of mine told us that we would know when the time was "right".  We did indeed question it a few times, because our intent was to NOT have him suffer.  However, if we could get some wags out of him, some talking from him (happy to see us talking!) and eating and being able to get up and walk a bit, we were willing to do what we needed to extend his life so we could have more time with him.

Scott was the one who had the intuition that Thursday night would be his last night with us.  He didn't eat some roasted chicken I had given to him for an evening snack and in fact, he vomited on the plate.  Then at 4 AM Riley got up and headed to the door, Scott heard him and was quick to let him out.  He barely made it and vomited and had diarrhea.  So Scott sat on the floor with Riley's head in his lap and they talked for several hours.  Finally near 7 AM he woke me to tell me that he thought this was the day and Riley was ready.  I called both the girls and they brought their families over to see Riley and to say their final good-bye to him.

We were suppose to have a chemo treatment in the morning anyway, so we brought him over to Dr. Lisa and she agreed that Riley was ready, she could see it in his eyes and his body language.  She gave him a catheter and little valium to relax him and brought him back in the room to us.  Dina, Scott and I immediately hugged him and told him we loved him and he laid down next to us and we whispered our words to him, then the doctor gave him his final injection and it was over in a matter of seconds.  Our Riley was finally at peace.

 

 

Doesn't he just look so peaceful and happy now?  He is not nauseous and he doesn't have to struggle to get up.  His soul is in heaven and he is running and leaping in the fields and chasing those tennis balls and catching them in the air.  He loved his balls.  He played catch with himself, it would bounce and he would catch it, then drop it to bounce again and so it would go!!  And he was so fast when we threw the ball to him and oh did we praise him if he caught it in the air!!

We decided we needed to bring Riley home with us as we have a place for all our pets in the yard somewhere.  So son-in-law Jamie helped dig a deep hole and later most of the family gathered to lay him to rest.  I said a little prayer:

"All knowing God, creator of all living things, we come to you this day in grief and with thanksgiving.  We are sad by the death of our beloved pet Riley who was with our family over 10 years.  But we thank You, God, for this gift of his presence as a sign of the richness of your creation and the generosity of Your Love.  We are sad to say good-bye and that he had to leave us, but we are joyful that he is with You, God, running, chasing those tennis balls and greeting everyone he sees with a joyful voice.  Through Jesus Christ our savior who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen"

Dina and Scott gently lowered him into the ground and each of the older grandchildren and our daughters all helped to throw the dirt back into the grave.

 

Riley is laid to rest.

We will forever keep him

in our hearts.

We love you, Riley.