Goodbye Needa

 

Needa was the sweetest dog I’ve ever known.

Her heart was willing to continue but her body could no longer contain her spirit.

For the last few weeks I lived the slow, unfair, heartbreaking anticipation of the inevitable. With so much love emanating from her it was hard to feel like I was doing the right thing when I called the traveling Vet to come to my house.

Yesterday, I drove her to Paradise and back. Her head was out the window the entire time; soaking up life as she’d always done; a reminder of what a flicker our existence is.

She took more out of life than it took out of her. I spent yesterday evening giving her treats and literally had to show her that the jar was empty before she would leave the kitchen.

Petie wasn’t present when the Vet performed the euthanasia and it concerned me. But moments after Needa was gone, he came into the room, gave her one last look and sniff. He looked lost when he returned to his bed in the other room.

I was the only human she knew intimately but she loved everyone. Yet at the end she saved the best of her love for me. She raced for almost 2 years before she was retired but her greatest victory was racing her way into my heart.

In her last hour Needa displayed happiness and gratitude after a big breakfast and a belly rub.  She left paw prints on the heart of everyone she ever met.

She was a blessing to me and many others and I am grateful that I was with her at the end of her beautiful life, fulfilling the promise I made to her.

In our final act of love her eyes got heavy and I held her sweet face in my hands, comforting her while trying not to cry. But instead of her heart quitting after the usual 20 seconds or so, it continued. She was not in pain and her heart became a slow beautiful murmur that lasted a couple of minutes before she slipped away. I know her heart did not want to leave me and she was just following my heart’s lead.

Then her soul ascended into Heaven; a passage she earned. I was there and as painful as it was I would not have had it any other way.