Your Pet Loss Stories

'Little Libby'

by Katharine
(Oregon)

Two nights ago someone coming in or going out didn't pull the front door shut all the way and the wind blew it open. Our 2 miniature schnauzers ran out and we didn't notice until my husband felt a draft. We drove all over looking and calling and couldn't find them.

Later that night the Vet emergency clinic called and had Libby, our one-year old and my baby girl. She had been hit by a car, she was so tiny, just 12 pounds and it was bad. She recognized us when we got there, and licked my hand but I could see she was paralyzed from the waist down and the vet said she probably had many internal injuries.

My son wanted to try and save her but the best case scenerio would have been a little dog with no use of her legs and total continence care and I knew this was impossible. Then she started fading and we knew nothing could be done so we all crammed around this little cage and put our hands on her and talked to her while they gave her an injection.

She started bleeding from the mouth so I knew it was the right thing to do. My younger son said he kept thinking about what could have happened, which was her being hit and lying by the side of the road in pain and cold and wet and then dying without anyone there. This is the one thing that makes it bearable, that she had us there and could feel and hear us.

Life deals us a lot of blows but the hardest ones are the ones we know could have been prevented. We are getting some screen doors that automatically close.

So, life goes on without my little shadow. I never did get her to those obedience classes and she was totally spoiled. She was, as they say, "a bad girl", and chewed up shoes and eyeglasses, and made messes I had to clean up and crawled through impossibly small holes in the fence and the list goes on. But I miss my little bad girl terribly so all those things can't have been so bad.

Today is day 2 and my stomach still hurts but I can think about her without crying everytime. I will never, ever forget her and her sweet kisses.

Goodbye my little Libby.