230218 A Dog Story

Chance’s Last Day

She was an old dog when she showed up on our back porch years ago. She already showed her age then. I talked to everyone I knew and even put an advertisement in the paper to see if anyone had lost her and wanted to claim her. No one responded.

She came along after our dog Alley had died and I felt then that I didn’t want to get attached to another dog. I tried to never get attached to Chance, but even though I tried my best, it was impossible. She was the smartest and best dog I ever had. She could interpret hand signals and respond well to vocal commands. She would come up and politely place her paw on my knee when she wanted affection. The one thing I could never figure out was that she would never enter a building, even the open garage. There was much better shelter for her in the barn or garage, but she would never enter either. She slept in an open wooden box I brought home from work and put on the front porch. In her later years I would try to bring her into the house on exceptionally cold nights, but she would never enter.

We could see the end coming her last few days and my heart ached for her. She was nearly blind, very nearly deaf; her hips had given out, making her walking painful and on that last day she could no longer make it to the porch when her hind leg seemed so dramatically out of place. I knew the end was here and her time had come.

I picked her up and put her into the SUV and drove to the Vet’s office. I cried as I removed her from the vehicle and into the Vet’s office and laid her on the floor. The Vet picked her up from the floor of his office but she showed no fear as she usually did around people she wasn’t familiar with. She seemed to sense his kindness and gentle care on her last day. Those requests for end of life services must be the most difficult tasks Vets have to perform, knowing how attached people become to pets. I cried all the way home and years later as I revisit this story I am again on the verge of tears.

The End