Chief mourns Chloe
72 views · Published 17 July 2017 · 1:23 · Indexed 12 October 2026
Channel: Carl Scruggs · 2017 · Pets & Animals
This last Saturday, on a sunny afternoon in northern New York, I made the decision to have my dog Chloe put down. What had begun some nine months ago as what seemed (at least at first) to be a bad bout of glaucoma, starting in one of her eyes, turned out to be an aggressive form of lymphoma. An ultrasound and an x-ray this last Thursday confirmed that it had spread to her kidneys and liver. She'd been losing a good bit of weight and running a near-constant fever in the weeks before that, and had begun rapidly losing her sight in her remaining eye as the cancer asserted itself there, too. (fuck cancer) I chose to end her life then, while she was still herself, rather than let her decline or suffer any further. This is my girlfriend's dog, Chief, seeing her for the last time. They'd been buddies ever since I met my girlfriend some two years ago, and they'd become quite inseparable, especially since they both moved in a few months back. He'd been noticeably depressed in the last few weeks, though - I think he knew that her end was coming. Dogs give us their all - their loyalty, their companionship, their enthusiasm, their love. In return, it's our responsibility to provide for them, to the end. That includes the usual things, sure - food, shelter, exercise, love. But it also includes the things that come up at the end of their lives - and being able to know when the best decision may not be the easiest one. Saying goodbye to Chloe was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but in the end, I think, it was the right one.
