We had to say goodbye to Heidi this week. She was 16 which in dog years made her just a little older than Whistler's Mother. When her muzzle started showing gray a few years back I warned the kids she was getting old, but I didn't believe it. She still took the stairs in one long leap and tore through the backyard to bark at the fence. When her eyesight began to get bad I warned Mike she wasn't going to last forever, but I hoped I was wrong. She still got around just fine, and she still chased the little dog away from her food at night. She would skip around under foot as you tried to feed her. When we had to start hollering so she could hear us at all I mentioned that she couldn't be that far from gone, but I prayed she would last just a while longer. She got so it was hard to go down the cement stairs into the yard, though she still climbed the entire flight to sleep with Mike and me in our bedroom each night, then down once or twice in the night for potty and a drink. Back up again, she could still make it. Mike built a ramp for her last spring to make the cement stairs more manageable. She learned to use it so well I kidded myself into believing it would buy her another couple of years. We took to leaving a lamp on downstairs so she would think someone was still up. That way she wouldn't try to come up to our room anymore. She was sleeping 20 or 22 hours a day. When she couldn't keep from having accidents in her sleep we decided it couldn't be much of a life. No eyesight, no hearing, can't control your bodily functions. When I'm that old I hope someone takes me to the vet.
I miss her terribly. She was a good old dog. Mike hasn't broken down yet, but it's just a matter of time. She was his dog, really. No, we're not planning on replacing her. Couldn't imagine getting a dog any better, and we're worn out from the constant care she required at the end. I'm not sorry we got her and I'm not sorry we helped her go - just sad she couldn't have lived longer and better at the end.
