Oh how I loved her!

A few weeks ago I learned my beloved Flat Retriever Penelope was very sick. She had an enlarged heart and spleen. There were options of surgery, but could I put her threw all of that was my concern. She recently had some eye surgery and the incision itself took a long time to heal. Even if she had the surgery, there are no guarantees it would be a success. So I chose to take her home and just love her and enjoy every day I could with her.  A couple days of rest and she seemed to be back to almost normal, other than not going on our long Washington walks she was silly, loving and very playful. Saturday morning this would change. When I woke to my cat nudging me instead of Penolope wagging I knew something was wrong. Penny had taken a turn for the worse and my confidence of her being ‘just fine’ was shattered. As the morning progressed she had a very long seizure. I knew this was it. I had to make the decision today to not be selfish and let her go…say good bye to my loyal beautiful Penelope that has come to be known as ‘Princess’ for her stature :o) So many feelings come out when you suffer the loss of a pet. For me, one was betrayal. Did I do enough? Did I treat her with the loyalty that she gave me for all of those years? I never had to teach her any commands. From the time she was a pup it was like she just understood everything from sit, lay, rollover and back up! Stay, was a little tricky, unless of course she was next to me~the devotion! Penny has had to protect me on more than one occasion from other dogs and many times snuggled my tears away when I was hurting by tucking her nose in or leaning her head strongly against my chest. A penny hug I would call it! Now it’s just me and Isaiah, my very sensitive 4 year old Boxer that tucks his tail in and sneaks off to the other room if I cry.