Sunday, April 5, 2009

So long, Sasha...

We have to put our dog to sleep tomorrow. It's really, truly one of the saddest things I've ever done. I have had pets my whole life, but I was never particularly attached to any of them - Sasha is different. She was my dog - I picked her out and brought her home, an 8 lb teeny little runt that was smaller than the bone we bought for her to chew.

Only six years later, she's 85 lbs and just as energetic. She's happy, sweet-tempered, and an absolutely wonderful companion for Josh. And she's going to die tomrrow. It's absolutely gut-wrenching...but unavoidable. She's started to develop symptoms of a congenital problem that all her littermates had...every one of them died pretty horribly, and they were fairly dangerous while sick. It's a risk to the kids, and selfish to put Sasha through it.

I'm so very sad for us, but much, much sadder for Josh. We've not told him yet - I was just fondly remembering when we took his binky away and he never even noticed. I don't think this will be a similar experience...life is going to be rough around here for a while. Pray for us if you think of it - she may be furry, but she is still very much a part of our family, and going to be very much missed.

6 comments:

Karen R. said...

Our thoughts are with you... I'll be crying, too.

k@lakly said...

Oh God, I am so sorry. Putting my pet down was one of the very worst days of my life. I'll be thinking of you and you're Sasha.
xxoo

Aunt Becky said...

RIP Sasha. I'm so sorry for your loss.

linds said...

aww... praying for you!

Kendra Lynn said...

Oh we went through that two years ago....one thing that helped the girls...we had them draw pictures for our dog, and then dictate a note to us for her...then we addressed them to Chloe in Heaven...put our address on the envelope and sent them up to heaven tied to some balloons. A week later, Merry got a letter from "heaven"...it was signed from "Jesus" and told us that Chloe made it safely there and that she was happy.

It really helped the girls to do that.

p.s. we never found out where the letter actually came from...I tried googling the postmark...and couldn't find a match.

Lori said...

I am so very sorry for your loss.