Advice On Difficult Conversation

[Sojourner]

Well, everyone, thanks for the advice. As it turns out, we didn't have to have a prolonged discussion on this subject because the dog died last night. Apparently he had been losing weight again, and then was vomiting off and on yesterday, mostly water. When my husband went to check on him in the wee hours of the morning, he was gone.

My sweet husband, out of consideration for me and the fact I was going to be taking my big test today, did not tell me until I called him after I got out this afternoon. Truth be told, I feel awful that he had to find the dog by himself, and then be sad all day by himself too. I will have to do very nice, supportive things for him.

[homeschoolmom]

[Marie-Therese]

Oh, I'm so sorry. God spared you the difficult conversation and spared the dog any further suffering. Prayers for your hubby, I know what a loss that is.

[MB16]

sorry about your husband's dog.

[MissyP89]

[quote name='Marie-Therese' post='1934329' date='Jul 28 2009, 08:02 PM']Oh, I'm so sorry. God spared you the difficult conversation and spared the dog any further suffering. Prayers for your hubby, I know what a loss that is.[/quote]

She's right, on all counts...I'll be thinking of you guys.

[Sojourner]

Thanks everyone. I finally got to see him (he had to work late) and I know he's hurting, although not talking about it much. Poor guy. I told him we could do a little ceremony, just the two of us, in memory of the dog. He agreed that would be nice.

[missionseeker]

Your husband sounds like a really great guy. Also, my friend is taking the bar here and so I have been saying prayers for you as well.

[Lilllabettt]

It's so sad.

I am a "hurry up and put them to sleep" person, myself. When our family dog started dying, I was begging the others to put her down. I just could not stand to see an animal suffering like that. It was pointless. Of course, I was just a teenager at the time, so it wasn't my decision to make.

Remember the opening scene from [i]Twister,[/i] when the family is hiding in the cellar? The dog is outside, and there's this tension: oh no will the dog be okay? At the last minute the Dad opened the cellar door and let the dog in. (I saw it in the theater and everyone cheered.) Moments later, the wind ripped the cellar door open and sucked out the Dad. This was pretty horrible, but the general feeling among me and my friends (it was my birthday party) was: "it's okay, at least the dog is safe." It was wierd that we all had that reaction, air-head middle schoolers though we were.

I think the reason it's so hard for us to watch an animal get sick or die is guilt. Let's face it, they're innocent. We're the ones who brought original sin, and sickness and death into the world. They're suffering because of us and we (at least on a subconcious level) know it.