Saying Goodbye…one year later

I said goodbye to my heart dog Lance one year ago today. I like to think that I’ve moved on, and in many ways I have. I have had a plethora of animals work their way through my home as fosters since then and even ended up adopting one of those creatures. But the memory of Lance pops up at random times. I am thankful that the memories rarely lead to break downs any more, but those early days without him were rough.

He had been sick for a while. We’re not really sure with what, but he was a 14 year old lab/sharpei mix, so his time was limited anyway. He hated the vet so we just did what we could to make him comfortable. The day I said goodbye to him it snowed. Snow was his favorite. We adopted him partially because the day the rescue brought him to the house, there was a massive amount of snow and he quickly started tunneling his way through it. He was always a goof like that.

That day, though, he let me know he was ready to go and I will always be thankful for that. It was one of the few animals I’ve lost through euthanasia that I didn’t immediately question if I made the right decision. He had quit eating (another favorite pastime) and was having difficulty getting comfortable when he was lying down.

I did manage to get Lance to the studio while he was still feeling okay, which I will always be thankful for. And I finally managed to get some of his images printed! (Yes, photographers are sometimes just as bad as you when it comes to actually printing their images.) Those images are ones that I will treasure for a lifetime.

I miss you all the time, Lance. I’ll see you at the rainbow bridge one of these days and have no doubt you’ll be right up front to greet me. You can even jump on me when we meet again.