"I know he means a lot to you..."

 

On Whitecap Mountain,
a cartoon of Bailey Tuckerman (2022)

I schedule an appointment and bring Bailey to the Rumford Animal Hospital for a wellness visit and a check on his lumps.  

"I know he means a lot to you," says Terry, Bailey's veterinarian. 

"Don't they all?" I ask, immediately. 

"No, not to everyone," she says and then talks about an owner and their dog. But my attention fades as I drift back to her initial words. This seemed to be the beginning of an end-of-life talk. 

To every thing there is a season. 

Terry did a full blood workup reserved for geriatric dogs. The results today: Bailey has a liver ailment. Enzymes and blood work are elevated. He's a on a medication for 30 days that we hope will clean and calm his liver. After the visit to Terry, I call up Fred to check on the food I feed Bailey to make sure I'm not killing him with carrots, peanut butter, Lean Treats, and dry food for geriatric dogs. 

"It's probably his age," Fred says. 

I imagine how many times over a 40-year career Fred's given "the talk." A former assistant of his called just the other day. Her 8-year-old golden dropped dead in her yard. Fred talked to her about his own dog Zellie who, one night, had an attack and died on the living room floor. 

"Nothing I could do," he explains to her. "Nothing you could have done either." 

To every thing there is a season. 

So, I'll keep on doing what we do until one day he says, I'd rather not. I'm good with that. Honestly, I'd much rather he go to sleep on a mountain trail or on one of his several beds at home than in an examination room. Usually, we don't have a choice about such things. I guess I'm good with that, too.