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A man writes a "Goodbye Letter" from his dog.

****. Now I am procrastinating AND crying at work.
 
Tough read. Thanks for posting it.

My youngest son's dog is an Australian Shepherd (Lil' Butch) that turns 15 one week from today, March 15. About 6 months ago, my son was home from school and we took Butch out of his run and into the front yard to cut his hair back and give him a bath. He lived outside all the time and being a herd animal he would get crap in his fur when he'd run around to bring the horses up to the barn for us, so every now and then, it would take clippers to get the crap out - this was one of those times. As we clipped him, I saw and then felt a large round and hard "thing" under his skin just behind the sheath where he pees from. We took him to the vet and they removed it. It was a tumor about twice the size of a golf ball.

All the tests came back negative for cancer. The tests were wrong. But we didn't know that then, and wouldn't find out for another 2 months.

I brought Butch into the house after the surgery to let him heal in a clean environment. He had never been in the house and you would have thought he was the king of the world the way he was acting.

Fast forward to now (to save space in this thread). He's asleep beside me on the floor. He is so swollen underneath to the point it looks like he has a cantaloupe under his skin. His back legs don't work well now. The cancer has reached his intestines and he lets gas all the time, which I could swear embarrasses him when he does. The cancer is also in his lungs so he takes shorter faster breaths than he used to, and every now and then the liquid in his lungs makes him cough and gag for a very short time until he gets it cleared.

Yesterday was the first time that I had to help him get his rear end up, and when I reached down and easily picked him up, he turned his head around and put his mouth around my wrist. He didn't exactly bite me, he just let me know he was hurting the way I was holding him, so I moved my hands further back and he was okay then and started wagging his stub (Aussies have a stub where other dogs have a tail). Like in the story, he couldn't make it down the front steps or back up them without help. Today, he's doing better and made it up onto his feet on his own and made it down and back up the steps on his own, although it was a major effort to do so.

His vet gave us pills to stop the pain and to slow the swelling. He seems to be happy. The vet even says he's doing well.

We've never put an animal down, here on the farm. All die from natural causes and we prefer to let nature take it's course... HOWEVER...

Butch is different. He's obviously beginning to suffer. My youngest son decided to take two days off from school (his professors were amazingly understanding) and is coming home tomorrow to make "the decision." It's tough. Yes Ma'am slept on the floor last night with Lil' Butch and it seemed like Butch slept well for the first time in a while. I sat up and watched, just on case.

The story you posted actually helped me today. It put a light on what we're going through that I couldn't see because of being in the middle of it myself.

Thank you for that.
 
holy crap

so sad, and so touching

there is a reason they are known as man's best friend

great letter....great owner....great post
 
I can't read it.
 
Why did I read that drunk? I can't stop crying. :(
 
I had to stop at the part about sharing the bed for the last night. That really hit a nerve and I couldn't go farther.
 
Most heart-wrenching thing I've read in a long time. I almost never cry... raised that way by parents who thought crying was a sign of weakness. Now I am crying, crying for the soul of a beautiful animal I never even knew. I will never be able to hear "I gotcha covered, buddy" again without tearing up.
 
DiAnna said:
Most heart-wrenching thing I've read in a long time. I almost never cry... raised that way by parents who thought crying was a sign of weakness. Now I am crying, crying for the soul of a beautiful animal I never even knew. I will never be able to hear "I gotcha covered, buddy" again without tearing up.
Click to expand...

:2bigcry:
 
DiAnna said:
Most heart-wrenching thing I've read in a long time. I almost never cry... raised that way by parents who thought crying was a sign of weakness. Now I am crying, crying for the soul of a beautiful animal I never even knew. I will never be able to hear "I gotcha covered, buddy" again without tearing up.
Click to expand...

My dog's name is buddy. I cried extra hard.
 
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