A Sad Good-Bye to Georgie

Hello Blogging Friends!  It has been two weeks since I last posted, and I've missed you all and being able to blog.  But in between sick dogs, work, trips to the vet, work, (did I say that?), the holiday getting into full swing, it has left little time for blogging. 

But today as we are watching our first snow fall...

I am also mourning yesterdays loss of Georgie. Despite knowing in July when Georgie came to us as a "hospice foster" that this day was coming, it didn't make it any easier when it did. 

~First photo from Lab Rescue of a boy they knew as Peanut Butter~

I suppose that I always held onto the hope that the vets were wrong, and we'd be given more time than just 5 short months. The visible signs of the cancer were every where on his body (which is why he wore a shirt) and he had become paper-thin.

~A photo of a first day with Georgie~

George was still involved in the daily comings and goings and followed me every where I went.  He had a voracious appetite, and still loved playing ball.  This all made the decision to let him go, that much more difficult and that much sadder. 

~Georgie in August~

George was truly a dog that was full of heart and courage. But I knew this week when the cancer became visible around his eyes, and he was having trouble seeing, that it was his time. So, yesterday as I held his beautiful face in my hands, I told him all those things that come from the heart at those times, including that sadly, his journey and his battle that was so hard fought, was over. It was time for me to let go. It was time for him to leave us. It was time for him to rest. He quietly left this world for the next. 

~George in October~

God speed to another lost boy who found his way as a stray from a shelter in Charleston West Virginia over 250 miles away to Lab Rescue, and then to us.  I have no regrets other than the feeling of being "cheated" out of never being able to see Georgie as a healthy and vibrant Chocolate Lab - Which is why I look forward to seeing him that way when we meet again one day at the Rainbow Bridge. 

~A last photo of George taken a week ago~

Finally, thank-you all for stopping by and for sharing in the loss of Georgie.  I hope you'll bear with me as I regain my footing from all that has been happening on the home-front and mourn this loss.  I am down, but not out - So, until I regain that momentum, and to end on a positive note, here's a photo of Todd taken after a trip to the groomers on Thursday. What would I do without this character?