Death of a dog
There is a wonderful and sad story in pictures about the final day of a canine companions life. That prompted me to write about one of my extra special companions: Einstein the German Shepherd.
Einstein was born sometime around 1997-07-01. I say “around” because I found him as a stray when he was approximately six months old. The pictures below are from when he was roughly five years old. In his senior years he loved to lay in the front yard or on the sidewalk in the evening and observe the neighborhood. When people and other dogs walked by he just watched them. Even two years after his death neighbors still ask me about him. He was the only dog I’ve lived with that I would trust unattended with children of any age.
Einstein and I made that final trip to the vet on 2012-03-26. As with the dog in the aforementioned story Einstein suffered from cancer (an abdominal tumor). It didn’t seem to bother him until the last two weeks of his life when he started showing a lack of enthusiasm for going on a walk. When he stopped eating I knew it was time to grant him the final kindness of a gentle death. Too bad we can’t do the same thing for the humans we love. Yet another reason to despise religious dogma.
