It was day three, and I knew it was time. Three days earlier, my beautiful dog Molly refused to eat.

It was unheard of for a dog who spent the first few months of her life as a stray foraging for food wherever she could find it and never, ever refusing anything edible ever since. She had been diagnosed with cancer in her shoulder the previous year and a half ago and given four months to live.

With a combination of conventional medicine and alternative therapies she lived longer than expected, but now her swollen shoulder made it difficult for her to walk and whenever I looked into her eyes, which always conveyed love and gratitude, I was now seeing pain and sadness. I know my eyes, my heart, and every ounce of my being, were overflowing with that same emotion.

They always tell you that you’ll know when it’s time to euthanize your pet but it’s never quite that easy. One bounces from guilt to desperation to heartache when trying to make such a decision. I’ve had many cats and dogs all with their own individual ways of dying. I look back at some of them and wonder if my decisions where the right ones.

Source: Lake Placid News