Recently I had to put our dog,Wolf down…

It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do…

He was the sweetest boy,almost 14 years old. Wolf was suffering from tumors and arthritis. I tried to give him meds for the arthritis and pain but it was only a little effective. He would fall sometimes and he couldn’t go upstairs anymore.

For a long time we helped him upstairs but it got too hard for him and us, so he had to stay downstairs.

That was sad too as he always wanted to be where I was. Before we went to bed I would stay downstairs and help him  relax and fall asleep before I would leave him and go to bed.

He seemed to accept staying downstairs as if he knew he could no longer do what he used to do.

Wolf was deaf but could see pretty good and knew hand signals. He loved being outside and even on that last day he and I went on one of our walks. Lingering outside as long as I thought he could take it,we walked slowly and stopped many times as he had not only trouble walking but breathing too as he would pant so much.

We had to have the vet come to our house as he could no longer get in the car.

It seemed he didn’t want to leave as much as I wanted him to live because it took 3 injections of Valium to get him relaxed enough to have the final injection to send him to heaven.

It really gutted me as before I helped him lay down he got whoozy. He was sitting up close to me and he started to whine.

I  think he was confused and scared as he really didn’t know what was happening.It really gutted me… Before that he had been walking around the kitchen and living room responding to my hand signals and coming to me for the last time as I buried my face in his neck as I had done so many times over the years. He always knew when I was upset and Wolf would come to me and I would bury my face in his neck while hugging him,sometimes crying and sometimes just hugging him…

My Mom died 15 years ago come this August and my sister died 14 years ago come this June. After that happened my husband said “you need a dog”. Within a few months we found Wolf.

He was a Norwegian Elkhound and the first time I saw him he was 11 weeks old and he came running around the corner at the breeders house and he came right to me and  I know we bonded right then,he was “my baby”.

I have 2 grown daughters and 3 grandsons who I love with all my heart but “dog people” know what I mean when I say Wolf was “my baby”…

I named him Wolf because he looked just like a Wolf puppy. He came home with us that very day.

The house still seems empty without him even though we have another dog also very sweet. He’s been missing Wolf too…

Someday we may get another dog but I don’t have it in me and for now we have our Australian Shepard named Trot another sweet boy who is almost 8 years old and we’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old.

I wish Wolf passed away when he was sleeping… I didn’t want to do this but he was suffering and his bad days outnumbered his good days.

Thank-you for giving me a chance to tell about my sweet Wolfie Boy!

— Karen from Mechanicville, NY