Moms Talk: Losing the Family Pet – The Aftermath

A few weeks back, Moms Talk covered the issue of dealing with the . This week, I’m sad to report that I had to take my own advice. One thing I learned is that situations like these require us women to totally Mom Up.

What does Mom Up mean you ask? Mom Up means that you put aside your own feelings and do what is right for your children, your marriage and, in this case, your family pet.

On Monday, the wonderful staff at Your At Home Vet came to my house and euthanized our 14-year-old boxer mix, Greta. Talking about the decision to put an animal down is always difficult, but it obviously needs to be said, especially from a mom’s perspective.

While losing our pet was a totally horrible experience I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, I knew that as a mom, I had to Mom Up and do what was right for the entire family.

Obviously, my husband and I knew that the end was near for our dog. She was just about to bridge that divide from being an old cranky dog to an old suffering dog. Sadly, I had to be the one to Mom Up and make the decision to call around for someone to come to our house. While we typically take Greta to , the vets within downtown, but we just didn’t have the heart to have her life end in an exam room. And, to be perfectly frank, I couldn’t imagine running into 10 people I know crying like an idiot.

The personal service is expensive but worth every penny. I can’t think of a time I was treated with such gentle compassion, even when my own mother passed away last year. The woman who answered my call scheduled a time that worked for our family and I hung up the phone feeling sorry for her…for having to deal with the likes of me, us weepy women, barely holding on, while trying to schedule such awful things around a play date, a husband’s lunch hour and my own crazy grief.

Since I’m in this not-often-seen emotional state, I will fully admit that I goofed on my last article. In it, I suggested that you take an impression of your pet’s paw print…and I totally biffed it. I fully intended on doing it (the vet even offered to leave me with the impression so my son could put his own hand print next to it and later bake in the oven) but I realized that it would not be the impression, no pun intended, I wanted to leave with my son.

Upon further reflection, I feel it would be wrong for our family to have a memento of such a terrible day. We have a few of our son’s handprints, even some of my husband’s, and they are used to commemorate special dates and ages in our life together, not sad ones.  Instead, we have pictures of Nate feeding Greta an entire rotisserie chicken.

My last bit of advice on this matter is the importances of letting your child lead the way. Part of the Mom Up strategy is to let your child naturally come to you with questions. We are not bringing up the dog again…unless he asks first. When I told my son, who was at a play date, what happened, he was 100 percent OK with it.

We had a lot of conversations about the dog being ill and that she would die soon and that likely the doctor/vet would come to our house and take her away after she stopped breathing. It’s been a day and he hasn’t asked anything except whether or not he will ever see her body. I explained that the doctor took her body and left her collar with us.

In all, it was an awful experience, but one tempered by the gentle comforts of a wonderful vet, a supportive husband and a son who got to feed some chicken to a pup one last time.