Tuesday - Seven Days Till We Let You Go

Baxter and Diesel

Yesterday I blogged about an amazing family that is challenged with the hardest decision every pet guardian must accept as a part of their responsibility. Their long time family pet and best friend Diesel is getting old and his time has come.

Now they must do what every dog family must do at this point in their dog’s life. Make that final decision to let them go. Jennifer and family have decided that they have seven more love filled days left to cherish their beloved Diesel.

As I chatted back and forth with Jennifer talking about doing a blog series I could feel her sadness and her strength in the words she wrote. Together we decided it would be a nice tribute to Diesel to share each day of their experience with anyone who cares to follow along this journey.

Most of what I write over the next seven days will be Jennifer’s own words.

Diesel Looks Out

Jennifer writes:

"...we are given seven days... not because we chose the date but because in many ways it chose us.

To let you go means that I have to hand you to somebody that I trust will care about you more than we do.

They have to know how special you are... I don't know if I even have fully realized just how special you are. 

Diesel and Gage

You've helped me read through manuals to assemble furniture (Ikea was always confusing to us) and test every toast crust I ever made (mostly because I hate crusts and you don't). 

We have seven days, Diesel, then your vet is back. Because she is on vacation we didn't have to pick a date - we simply went with her first day back.

We know your time has come but it was so hard for us to say, "Okay, Wednesday is the day." Because that quickly changed to, "Saturday. Yes it'll be Saturday."

And then we decided that you deserve to have the vet that cared for you and loved you since this began lead you to the next place. And when we found out that she was back next Tuesday we decided that would be it.

We were given a date and that left us with seven days... and we are okay with that because it gives us the time to spend with you. To tell you all our wishes and fondest moments we shared together. Time for us to get used to the idea of you no longer being here. Time to prepare ourselves to be strong for you.

Because right now pet commercials make us cry, songs on the radio make us cry, looking at you makes us cry... so we need to have these seven days to know that we are sending our friend onward with love, light and love - the seven days are for us to realize that letting you go is for you.

Diesel and Alyssa

So even though these posts won't be read by you, Diesel, I'm writing them so that I will always be able to remember what you have taught me. So that our family can visit this album and feel some sort of comfort when you are no longer in front of our fireplace. So that anybody who has struggled with having to let their beloved pack member go can not feel alone. But mostly, because I don't know how I am going to get through this week knowing that these are the last days you will be here and at some point I need this to make sense to me... so this is my album of what you have taught me - for this week I will not interrupt you... I will just listen."