Casey came to me overnight, thanks to FaceBook. I opened FaceBook this morning to a video memory of Casey from a year ago (two weeks post-amp). He was running to me from across the yard, just bounding, with his tail wagging and a big ol’ Golden smile on his face. My Golden warrior, but what it really showed me was how much he’d declined with the paralysis over his last two months, and especially the last two weeks. This video showed me we really had done the right thing sending him to the bridge.
I have another video from the vet, the day he left us. I’d carried him in and they’d arranged a bed for him in an examination room. I set him on the bed and we fed him a cheeseburger and some ice cream with chicken treat sprinkles. He was one happy boy (Ann assured me he had an ice cream headache having downed about a cup of ice cream in one bite), but he was enjoying the attention. This is when I explained that at the bridge, he’d get his arm back along with the other stuff we’d cut off, and that the girls were going to be really happy to see him. That video haunts me, because he was so happy, but it had gotten to where he’d whimper at times when I lifted him, and I believe he was also whimpering at frequencies we couldn’t hear because Bode would get so concerned about his brother.
As my brother so wisely put it “He couldn’t dog anymore Tom. Aren’t you glad you were able to send him off before his life grew miserable?” I am glad, but Ann and I both miss him, a lot.