End of Life Situations

I made the lab tech at the vet a little worried yesterday. I blame Lemur.

She drew some blood from big dog to test his pancreas. When she brought him back and asked if we have any questions, Lemur had to ask THAT question.

“How do you handle end of life situations, when the time comes?”

Seriously, when I’m worried about my two-year-old pup, this is NOT what I want to ask the vet.

She was super sweet and did a great job explaining. Unfortunately, I can’t stop the tears leaking from the corners of my eyes once they start, and every time I have to go back to the little table where I held my old dog for his last moments, tears are abundant.

Almost two years have passed since that day. I can hold an entirely normal-sounding conversation while crying about it now. That freaks some people out. I think she left the room thinking I would be a mess on my own for awhile and that she couldn’t come back to tell us the results of the test, even though they weren’t horrible.

I’m fine, Mom. Why is your face wet?

Yes, big dog’s pancreas test came back as a little inflamed. Yes, he needed a shot and some pro-biotic supplements for his food. (Thanks, Purina. How about you bake that shit into your high-end dog foods…we are switching to a non-Purina brand. Let’s hope they don’t buy the new brand, too.) It’s not the end of the world, and definitely not end of life.

Yes, I’m crying again. Dammit, Lemur.

For those of you waiting for a writing update: I am wrapping up what I hope are the final-final-my-god-this-book-needs-to-be-published-so-I-can-stop-working-on-it edits on Breaking All the Rules before I send to betas. Stay tuned.