The only dog I remember losing in terms of death was my mom's dog that I grew up with through childhood. Becka, a Jack Russell Terrier, died at the age of fifteen mostly from natural causes but also suspected cancer and fluid in the lungs. I cried like a baby when she departed at the vet. I remember the last days well.
My mom, dad, a sister, and I were taking my cat and another one of our dogs to get some shots while the rest of the kids stayed home. My brother called my parents to say that Becka was having diarrhea (may have been vomit, dont remember that detail) all over the floor. We had been on high alert on her after some sort of stroke or seizure that she had on January 19 (same day Stan Musial died) so my mom was mildly worried. My brother just closed her up in the laundry room for time being.
My parents talked it over and ultimately decided her fate. It was really odd that day. My dad built her coffin (just a wooden box) in the garage and put it in the trunk of the van. Becka was held in the laundry room behind a baby gate. She would just sit or lie down by the gate watching us when we were in the kitchen and walk back and forth to her blanket, but she wasn't eating or drinking. That afternoon, everyone got ready to leave. My mom wrapped Becka in my favorite blanket from when I was a toddler and held her the whole way to the vet. Normally, Becka would yelp from arthritis or try to look out the window at the cars, but she just laid still. We brought two of our other dogs to let them see her off on her departure.
At the vet, she was inspected and had bled from her rear onto the blanket and her breathing was heavy. The fatal dose of euthanasia was given after we petted her and let the other dogs sniff her face. She died at 6:38pm. I was a total wreck all night. My mom offered to have her buried in my blanket which I didn't accept. We carried her now 11lb heavier box out to the van. I remember the song that played on the radio (Josh Wilson - Carry Me) fit so perfectly to the situation that I just got more upset. We stopped at Shop n' Save on our way home and I was still so upset that my mom wanted me to stay in the van. There was no way in heck knows that I was staying in the van with the deceased corpse of the dog I had known for so long so I went inside. We got home later and buried her near the road off a dirt bike trail in the woods on ourproperty.
RIP Becka: January 14, 1998 - February 17, 2013
