Good-bye (for now) to Dusty

~The day we met Dusty, August 25, 2015~

Today we said good-bye to Dusty.  It was a day I had been dreading, but expecting.  Despite that, I just wasn't ready, not even remotely, which is crazy, because these past few months have been so tough for him.  The tumor on his back leg had grown to be quite large and he was no longer able to lay on that side.  And this week I noticed that he was getting a pressure sore on the other hip.  Added to that, his ability to walk and get around was getting harder and harder.  Dusty was clearly on a journey for which there was only one possible end.

~Dusty last fall, the tumor visible on his left hip~

I guess I was just holding onto hope that adding medications, or changing something else would make a difference, but it didn't.  And when the holistic vet came on Tuesday night to see Jake and I asked her to give me her thoughts on Dusty, I already knew what she would say.

Then Wednesday morning came and we sat on the porch together, I asked Dusty (and the cosmos) to let me know if it was time for him to go.  In the early morning there was nothing but silence as he quietly slept next to me.  I took the other dogs for a walk a few minutes later and it began to rain.  In the west, I saw a rainbow.  Some will say that it was just a coincidence that I'd see one.  But for me, seeing it before 6 o'clock in the morning, once again confirmed what my heart already knew.

~January 2016~

Dusty came to us in August of 2015.  He'd been given up by an elderly couple earlier that year after a car accident left them unable to care for him.  At the shelter, Dusty caught the eye of a mother grieving the loss of her son who had committed suicide.  By late summer her heart had healed enough that she felt she was ready to move on with her life, and so she gave Dusty to the rescue.

At Golden Pines, Dusty found his place in our home.  Inside he was a very quiet and unassuming Golden, that would gently nudge my arm for attention and twirl in circles at mealtime.  Outside from Todd, he learned to bark at the fence at whatever happened past.

His most content times were when he was laying in the grass.  The last few weeks he seemed to gain strength from the warm sun, and never wanted to come inside.  

This morning we had Dusty outside for the last time, and as he stood there in the bright warm summer sun, he raised his nose and sniffed the air before he collapsed onto the ground -- His strength to continue was gone.  I couldn't help think of the words another blogger had written about their own dog, "He stood tall but this morning the grass grew taller."

~September 2015~

The Mobile Vet would come shortly afterwards, and we said our good-byes on the front porch that he loved.

~Dusty sleeping on the porch in 2015~

A wren landed at the other end of the porch and started singing just as Dusty was leaving this life for the next -- Reminding me that there are other worlds to sing in. He is now free and no longer in pain.  I am grateful to have had the chance to get to know Dusty and to have had him as part of our lives for 10 months.  I will look forward to seeing him again one day; he will be missed and not forgotten.

Our candle has been lit all day to help him find his way to the Rainbow Bridge, where I know he was greeted by all those who have gone before him.    

God-speed my "DUSTy-Bunny."