"Hail Lady, full of grace,
Blessed art thou amongst dogs."
That is what I would tell her, as I scratched her head and wiped her eyes. She was my friends dog. She turned 17 this month, a spayed female part Shelty that had come from the SPCA when he and his son moved into their house.
I last saw her in the front yard, chewing on the rib bone of a pig, her atrophied back legs collapsing under her, I set her straight again and told her byebye. Yesterday at lunch he gave her the last left over rib bone from the trip to Texas Steak House and she happily tottered off with it. She never returned.
Last night as we positioned our vehicles to shine the headlights into the woods, as we whistled at the top of our lungs I knew she would not be found. Knew the leaves would not stir and produce a decrepit bag of bones loping along. She was on her way out for some time, slept 23 1/2 hours a day and would only eat people food anymore. She suffered from heart worms and it was just a matter of time. So with the last of her good quality of life, she answered the call of nature, and went off to the woods to die in private.
It was typical Lady. She was not a very social dog. The major emotion I saw her demonstrate in her life was disdain. She didn't need affection, did not care for most other dogs until about a year ago she made friends with a Chihuahua who would visit her at the end of the driveway every morning.
I hope her passing was peaceful, will probably never know. What I can do is tell myself a story about it to help it make sense. She, sitting in the yard with the rib bone betwixt her paws, gnawing. She smelled a sweet warm breeze that carried with it the taste of pig meat. All old dog love pig meat. She rose and tottered off, into some portal seen only by her, blue in color. Tottered off and that was that.
She was full of Grace.