I took Lady to the vet on Sept. 14 because of her hacking cough. The vet said it was OK, that she had an infection and needed antibiotics and cough medicine.
She still did the hacking cough now and then, but the frequency dropped markedly. I wrote that I was relieved, for now.
I have no relief tonight. I was asleep just after 5 a.m. when my wife Holly came in and said "Lady's dead." We checked her out, and she actually moved her head and legs.
But she had passed water, as the dead do, and her face looked awful. It was a last spasm of a stubborn animal. She didn't give up the ghost easily.
Lady would have unofficially turned 16 on Oct. 1. I chose that day as her birthday because we got her Oct. 1, 2002. So she fell two weeks short.
The ironic thing is that I bought Lady a name tag at the vet's office three days ago. I wanted her to be official when she was out. Now, we'll keep it on the mantle.
I've thought about her death often the last several months; it was inevitable. But the reality is as bad as I feared; maybe worse.
I'll write more later. Right now, this is the third worst day of my life, following the deaths of my mother in 1978 and my dad in 2003.
I'll mourn for awhile. And we'll get another dog. After Lady, I can't imagine life without one.
(Note: We got a beagle 10 days after Lady's death. They were calling her Lacey at the Humane Society, but that was too close to Lady. So she's Dixie.)
EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK
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