{"id":2511,"date":"2013-05-14T09:43:54","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T15:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2013-05-14T10:08:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T16:08:00","slug":"rosies-last-day-may-13-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/?p=2511","title":{"rendered":"Rosie’s last day, May 13, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

If<\/span> you are not a dog person you can skip this post, and even if you are and don’t like a “blow by blow” skip it too — but for anyone who wishes, this is an account I wrote last last night about Rosie’s last day on earth. I wrote it for me — so I would always remember. There are many other vivid memories of Rosie that need to be poems, I think — and are on their way ….<\/span><\/p>\n

Morning \u2013 Rosie usually greeted Bob with enthusiasm to go outside and then to take a walk in the park, but she has not been able to do any of that for a long time \u2013 I think this morning Bob just took her outside to do her business.<\/span><\/p>\n

She seemed to be feeling a little better during the day \u2013 morphine had worn off by late morning and she was napping in the basement. No longer able to go up and down the stairs \u2013 mostly content to stay down there \u2013 and sleep \u2013 she slept a lot in the last few weeks \u2013 even months \u2013 when she would sleep so deeply.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were in and out a little \u2013 the concrete workers were here \u2013 and she seemed to like going outside through the garage where she could smell the wind, she ate some grass \u2013 she peed and pooped \u2013 she would jounce along on three feet. Then go back inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

The house cleaners came and we took George and Rosie in the car one last time while we cleared out for their work and made a little trip to Chilkoot Cafe. Rosie needed help going up and down the ramp, but it was a nice, normal thing to do \u2013 they have spent a lot of time in the back of the car.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mostly she napped in the basement but during supper she cried and wanted to come up and be with the people — so I took the rest of my dinner down there. Bob and I stayed with her then, stroking and petting and telling her what a great dog she was and how we were going to miss her \u2013 I have wept a lot during the last few days and today was worse \u2013 her left eye was completely gone and the left leg swollen \u2013 I really think she has had cancer through her body for a time\u2026. we will never know how much pain she was in. \u00a0I know it is the right thing to do, but a big part of me still cried NO.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Ann came she told us what would happen \u2013 sedatives that would make her sleepy and then put her to sleep and then the last shot to stop her heart. She said she would wait until we said it was OK to give her the last shot \u2013 before that, she took a clay paw print for a keepsake \u2013 and stamped her name on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosie fell asleep with Bob and I both stroking her head\u00a0 \u2013 we said OK\u2013 she stopped breathing first, as Ann said she would, and then as we waited and talked about her a little \u2013 I looked at her face and felt her go. It was the almost round sense of a contained, sort of dense, dog soul \u2013 it just left \u2013 it was the same thing I felt when I went to the shelter with the children in Santa Fe \u2013 the dogs there had no people, their soul crying \u2013dogs are the friend of humans \u2013 and without a human they are sad and depressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ann suggested we let George in to see her before we took her away \u2013 she said he would have been able to smell that she was sick, but it might be good to see her and where she went. George came in like gangbusters \u2013 mostly interested in if there were any treats, and to greet people \u2013 he barely glanced at Rosie\u2019s body \u2013 full of life, that George.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosie had a good life from the moment Dad and I brought her back from her birth home in Juneau County \u2013 and through all the times Dad raised her and spoiled her \u2013 when she came and barked at my window to alert me that Dad was down in the woods \u2013 when I got to him, Rosie was on the other side of him, looked in my eyes and laid her paw on his chest \u2013 he was gone \u2013 his heart. She was so smart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then we got George and then Bob came into our lives. She shadowed Bob \u2013 she loved him and he loved and spoiled her too.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will miss her dearly \u2013 she was there for me through all of that \u2013 Dad\u2019s passing, my days and nights alone in the Dells house \u2013 all the kind ways she had of loving me. So faithful and so devoted and so uncomplaining. I never knew when she was hurt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our life will be OK \u2013 we will have a little less love \u2013 but she is in our heart, like Bob said \u2013 right here in our hearts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Goodbye Rosie, girl, sweet thing.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are not a dog person you can skip this post, and even if you are and don’t like a “blow by blow” skip it too — but for anyone who wishes, this is an account I wrote last last night about Rosie’s last day on earth. I wrote it for me — so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockaria.net\/bluebirdprairie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}