Pet Bereavement Support Group

Our beloved dog, Jasmine, passed away last night at the ripe old age of 15-years and 2-months. Jasmine was a wonderful dog. Loyal, kind, fun, frisky, the list goes on and on. We were very blessed to have had her in our lives for such a long time. Larger breeds like herself don't always see 12-years let alone 15. For that we are very grateful. We will miss her furry face coming to greet us when we return home from school or shopping. We will miss her spunky attitude that she still showed to us, albeit more limited, even as late as last summer & fall. She was my loyal walking companion and loved being up north in the high grass and woods. Jasmine especially loved up north because it's the first place she experienced snow -- a time we will always remember because she ran and ran so excited and we thought she would never stop. She loved watching squirrels and pursuing them from time to time. She loved treats and always knew who to go to, to get what she wanted. She was there for me when my dad passed away. Even though she was a spunky pup of 5-months old, hard to settle down -- she came to me and placed her head in my lap as I cried, seeming to reassure me that everything would be alright.

She was more than a dog, she was part of our family and we can hardly believe she is really gone. We're drove up north on Sunday morning to lay to rest our "pooh-bear" in the place she loved to run free for so much of her life. It was a hard trip. For 15-years she's ridden in the back seat of the van to head up north and it was her final ride.

Now I find myself thinking I see her out of the corner of my eye. My husband said the same today as he was mowing the lawn -- he thought he saw paws. Her death was not unexpected as she was 15-years old -- but even her vet did not anticipate she would have gone so quickly. She thought Jasmine had a neurological problem with her hind legs (stumbling) that wasn't the arthritis we had originally suspected. Prednisone was our last hope to give her some quality of life but it was too late. She started it on Thursday and by Saturday night she was gone.

I know she knew she was dying. I could feel she had given up by not eating, even refusing treats the later part of Saturday afternoon. When I saw her apparent wandering in the back yard I sensed that she was in her last hours. I made the girls go out and sit with her in the grass and hug her, tell her they loved her and say good-bye. She enjoyed their company even though the tears were flowing freely. They went to bed around 9pm and Jasmine passed away at 10:15pm. I was with her when she took her last breath, and my husband came outside just as it was happening. I've never cried so much and never thought loving her would hurt so much now that she's gone. I read the book Dog Heaven to my girls that night and I can only hope that it's as blissful as the book's words describe. That someday an angel will take her back to us, let her sniff around her old yard, see how we're doing and rest assured we're all well taken care of without her.
Posted on 07/08/08, 10:07 pm