The death of a friend

Over the weekend my son's dog, Leia, completed her job on earth. On Wednesday she was in reasonably good health for her 14 years. She was taken to the animal clinic to have a small tumor removed from her neck. It was supposed to be done with a local injection, but she wouldn't hold still and was put to sleep instead. She came home later that day and seemed fine. Then she stopped eating,began throwing up and became very weak. Saturday morning she went back to the clinic and was hooked up to an IV. Blood tests were done and it was determined that she had a kidney disease, probably caused by the medication she had previously been given. There was nothing the doctor could do. She didn't make it through the weekend.

Leia was a wonderful companion to her master, who had lived through some challenging experiences for the last four years. My son was divorced, unemployed (through no fault of his own) and on the verge of being homeless. Last June he and Leia and all their possessions moved in with me to start over. It took a lot of adjusting, but things worked out. My two mature cats and young dog, Ejay, had to get used to another four legged being sharing their space.

I feel bad that although I took care of Leia's needs during the day while my son was at work I never really bonded with her as well as I should have. In addition to being a great companion for my son she taught Ejay to share and became his friend. They each had their own toys and places to sleep and pretty much learned to respect each other.

Leia did a great job of taking care of my son during her life and he deeply misses her. This morning Ejay was looking for her. I don't know how to explain the death of a friend to an animal.

In this photo Ejay is on the right and Leia is on the left, shortly after she moved in.