Reality Check

Yesterday I had to take Tito to the vets, he got stung on his right pad and also has a skin infection between his paws. So he is constantly licking and licking his paw at the moment, he had to have a couple of injections to get the sting and the itchiness to stop. He was fine all be it a little grumpy in the evening.

Today he has woke up and he is walking fine, and seems to be much better. So all is good in the world of our beagle again.

Not so for me, I had a harrowing experience at the vets yesterday. One that has been playing on my mind ever since. One that I know will occur in our lives in years, hopefully many years, to come. But one that was brought home yesterday with a huge big slap in my face!

Two dogs were put to sleep yesterday while I was waiting for Tito’s appointment and it was so traumatic to listen to and see.

The first dog I didn’t see him go in, although the lady I was sitting next to informed me that he was 15 years old and his owner was worried that he wouldn’t be going home this time. All you could hear from the vets room was crying, and barking. Then the barking stopped and the wailing started. All I could do was sit and really cuddle Tito. A thousand thoughts were going through my head, mainly being I am never going to be able to do that! The poor lady was in the room for what seemed eternity, it was probably only ten to fifteen minutes, but the whole time she was wailing. That was bad enough. However when she eventually came out she was a very old frail pensioner and I really felt for her, I have seen her around town a lot with her dog. She was shattered and looked so upset. All of us waiting in the waiting area suddenly held onto our dogs very tightly. It was a harrowing feeling.

A man was sitting the other side of me, he had a little terrier on his lap, and was very quiet. He didn’t seem to talk to anyone, our vets is a very chatty place, it’s amazing how both owning dogs means you talk to one another! But he didn’t engage, he just sat there stroking his dog.

He was called into the vets, he was in there maybe ten minutes. He then walked out of the vets, the vet carrying his terrier in his arms, wrapped in a towel, both silently walking out of the vets. He was composed and quiet.

Two dogs, two owners now without dogs, two dramatic different ways to grieve. Again we sat and held our dogs as tight as we could.

It was so sad to see, but amazing at how different the two owners had approached this awful time in their lives. It gave me a massive reality check, that dogs really are the best of friends in your lives, in our case Tito is our second child! We have to devote as much attention to him as we do Baba and he is such a big impact in our lives, all dogs are. But unfortunately they do not live as long as we do. So we need to make sure that their short little lives are the best that they can be, and to enjoy them for as long as we have got them!