Our beloved family dog, D'arcy, passed away today. She was 14 years old and had a very difficult past six months. She was hardly able to eat, couldn't hear or see much, and spent almost all of her time just napping in the sunlight. All of this would have been fine, except that she was getting so bony and her hips were so bad that she had a hard time going outside or getting up at all.
My mom has been D'arcy's caregiver in these last months of her life. She has hand fed her wet dog food every night, walked her at an unbelievably slow and patient pace every night, carried her in and out of the house, bathed her, cuddled with her, and even took her to the groomers. Through all of these hard times my mom has stood by D'arcy's side. Understandably, she is quite upset that we had to put D'arcy to sleep.
Here are a few pictures of Gloria cuddling with D'arcy. "Doggy" was actually Gloria's first word, and she had finally mastered D'arcy's name. She has been looking for her doggy all day long, and I am not sure if she is old enough to understand in any way that D'arcy is gone now. It is sad, but I can't help but think that she had a lot more time with the dog than she had with her father. Must I always have such dark thoughts?
D'arcy was a very smart, fun and boysterious dog. She used to go for long walks with me so I could "spy" on the Navis brothers down the street or so I could go visit with friends at the park across the street. She liked to eat popcorn and carrots, but would not eat pretzels for some reason. She could tell the difference between which cars were in the driveway and would only get up to greet my dad. She was not allowed to go upstairs (my dad's rule) but if I stayed home sick from school I would sometimes see her wandering down the hall in triumph. Sometimes, she would even go down into the basement to snuggle with my brother Dan in his room. D'arcy was the only family pet we had with any personality or smarts. She will most definitely be missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment