Very Sad

I'm driving Emily to San Rafel today. We're taking Bitsie, the 9yr old yellow lab, back to Guide Dogs for the Blind, to be put down. As I noted back on August 18th, Bitsie has cancer. The doc gave her about a month back then. She made it about 6 weeks with some fair quality of life.

But today is the day.

She's a tired dog. She has difficulty standing. She no longer wants to each much (which for her is very unusual). She's lost a lot of weight. She's not in great pain now, but will be very soon. It's awfully hard to make this decision, but it has to be made. To delay much would be cruel.

I've never had to do this before. I've gotten rid of animals; given them away, taken them to the SPCA, etc. But never to put one to sleep. We have such nice phrases for it: put to sleep; put down; put out of their misery; euthenasia. It doesn't make it feel any nicer.

My x-wife had to take her cat just yesterday to the vet to be put to sleep. I don't think she's ever done it before, either.

Anyway... I'm off to do the dad thing, and help my daughter with this the best I can.