On Putting A Dog To Sleep

     Page One Hundred Fifty-One.
     I'm doing some dog-sitting this weekend. I'm here right now while Mommy and Daddy are in Nicaragua visiting daughter #1 and her family. Next weekend I'll be back here, again, while they visit daughter #2 and her boyfriend in New York City. I've been this family's dog-sitter for maybe sixteen or seventeen years or longer. And, in fact, once during the late-90's, I stayed here one long weekend baby-sitting both girls while Mommy and Daddy were off trotting around the globe somewhere. So, I'm quite close and friendly with this family.
     Last week, I accompanied mom as she put the older of their two dogs down. Dad was out of town and the whole family knows that I care about these animals practically as much as they do. Mom needed some emotional support, of course, so she called me. It's always horrible to put an animal to sleep. This particular dog was a fourteen year old collie. That's really a long life for a large dog. I think she could've been put down earlier, months earlier. But, oh well.
     A couple of days ago I stopped by and spoke with dad. He thanked me for going with mom and then told me it was really his fault that Wanda wasn't put down a few weeks earlier. He's a doctor and changed Wanda's medicines. He thought those med changes might buy her some months. Then he promptly went out of town on business. Wanda didn't improve and in fact, got worse. To back up, over the course of the last few months, both girls came in town to say good-bye to their beloved pet. So, everybody's been seeing this coming for a while. The problem has been determining when Wanda's pain was really affecting her quality of life. She rarely acted like she was in pain, even on her final day. And the fact is, she probably wasn't in much pain, even then, thank heavens. But everything else was such a disaster that she had no real quality of life left. It was just time. That's all.
     So here I am baby-sitting just one doggie, instead of two. If I know this family though, and I do, it won't be too long before there's a cute, little puppy on the scene. Lord help us.