Our sweet Angel is now an angel

Even when you know it is coming and you know they are better off, it is still really hard to let them go. Angel had been having trouble getting around since last year. The vet had us try glucosamine supplements, which did help some, I guess, but lately it was getting harder for her to get back up if she slipped down on the hardwood floors as her hip joints were bad and then even her front leg was bothering her this week. Her vision was getting really bad. During this last few months, we had been debating taking her to the vet to have her put to sleep, but it would seem like that about the time we thought maybe we should, she would get better for a time. Starting Tuesday she was very restless and couldn't seem to ever get settled down. She kept falling down and then started getting really sick during the night. We were going to take her to the vet today, but Kerry called me at work to let me know she had passed on. I was able to hold her a lot yesterday and tell her how special she was and how much we loved her. I hope she understood. Kerry had her next to him in the bed when she died. Kerry was crazy about Angel. He's not one to be emotional, but he was about this little dog.

We were not really sure how old Angel was as Emily rescued her from the animal shelter in Tuscaloosa about 7 years ago, I think it was. The shelter told Em that Angel was about 8 or 9, so if that was right, she was about 16 years or so. She had evidently been in a bad home before as her hair was so matted that they had to shave it off and she was skin and bones basically. Her hip had been broken at some point and never set so that she always walked with a limp. So she probably lost some years off of her life from malnutrition and abuse. You could tell she had been hungry by how fast she would eat any treats you gave, as if she was starving to death. How anyone was ever mean to this precious Angel I will never know. She hardly ever barked and while she loved to be petted if you weren't paying attention to her, she would go off and lay down to sleep. I don't think I've ever seen a sweeter animal.

She was a little thing, but I still remember when we first got her how she would get a run and go to jump up on the couch to sit with us and hopefully get a belly rub, her favorite thing. We have pictures of her sitting with her eyes closed in bliss while someone rubs her stomach as in this shot.



I think I've explained before how we came to have her at our house. Emily decided she wanted a pet while she was in college. After a while, she realized that she and her room mate weren't home enough to care for a pet properly, so Angel came to stay with Mom and Dad. Later on, when Emily probably could have taken her back, Kerry wouldn't hear of it, as he had become attached to her by then. Even our other dog, Max, loves her. If I ever went to let him out to do his business, but didn't have Angel with me to take her out as well, Max would just sit down and look at me until I went to get Angel, too. He's probably not going to know what to think.



Bye, sweet thing!