How do you say goodbye?

It was a tough weekend at our house. Our beloved Izzy passed away yesterday of kidney failure. She has been failing for several weeks and we had been back and forth to the vet with her. The response of the PA over the last month has been simply - she needs to lose weight, she will be fine. By Tuesday of last week she was very lethargic and had not eaten for several days. By Friday she was loosing fur and D got mad enough to take her back to the vet in insist that there was something really wrong and they needed to find what it was and now. After several hundred more dollars worth of tests they finally determined that she had been suffering from kidney failure for the last year and her kidneys had finally failed completely. There was nothing that could be done her body was full of toxins and infection. This must have been a genetic problem because they don't see kidney failure in dogs until they are usually ten or eleven. Izzy was almost eight.

D brought her home Friday so that we could all say goodbye. The kids took some great pictures of her and gave her love and hopefully made some good final memories. D then took her back to the vet Saturday morning and had her put to sleep and out of her misery. The Vet had said that she would not make it through the next week. We had her put to sleep to prevent her from suffering any further. D brought her home she was put to rest in our backyard. We plan to put a tree over her this summer so as we can all remember her.

We are all sad and feel like a part of our family is gone. I walked into the kitchen all weekend and missed seeing her laying by the couch. I miss her greetings when we would come home and she would run to the door with her tail wagging. I miss her love of treats and how she would play tug of war with the puppy. I miss her coming up under my hand and wanting to be scratched. I miss her getting in the way when I tie my shoes and how she would push and get in the way so that you would have to scratch her.

This has been the first big loss for the kids and I am glad that we do have Kimiko to help them not feel the loss so badly.

Izzy we did not want you to go, we all loved you so much. I hope you are happy in puppy heaven and getting to chase balls and toys until your hearts content.

We love you!!